Abstract
First of all, we must take our hats off to anyone who decides that they want to author a dictionary on any topic! I don’t believe that I ever saw the first edition of Dictionary of Toxicology, but the second edition, published in 1998 and edited by Ernest Hodgson, Janice E. Chambers, and Richard B. Mailman, filled a much needed gap for toxicology educators. So time has passed and finally in 2015, these brave editors, joined by R. Michael Roe, published an update to the second edition. The Amazon.com Web site states the following about the third edition of Dictionary of Toxicology. “New to this edition: an update on every entry and the inclusion of all terminology and concepts relating to molecular toxicology, nanotoxicology and computational toxicology.” Until I read this ambitious and impressive description of the content of the third edition of Dictionary of Toxicology, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to review a dictionary. But that description gave me inspiration. I would generate a list of several dozen terms that would test the inclusion of terms related to molecular toxicology, nanotoxicology, and computational toxicology as well as some terms that I simply hoped would be there, and then I’d look them up!
So here’s my list, with yes or no to indicate whether I found the term or not: Agglomeration (no) ATSDR (yes) Clara cells (yes) Contact dermatitis (no) Epigenetics (yes—not comprehensive) Dynamic light scattering (no) Glutathione (yes) Heme oxygenase (yes) Imidacloprid (no) International Conference on Harmonisation (no) Metallothionein (yes) Monoamine oxidase (yes) Nanomaterials/nanoparticles (no) Naphthalene (yes) National Toxicology Program (yes) Neonicotinoids (no) p-Glycoprotein (yes) Pharmacogenetics (yes) Phase III metabolism (yes—not comprehensive) Phospholipidosis (no) Polymorphism (yes) Principle component analysis (no) Report on Carcinogens (no) Styrene (yes) Thiopurine methyltransferase (no) Torsades de’Pointe (no) Toxicogenetics (no) Zeta potential (no)
The dictionary remains solid in the areas of expertise of the editors, namely, pesticide and environmental toxicology as well as neurotoxicology. While CAS numbers are listed for most, if not all chemicals, gene nomenclature is not (eg, HMOX1 as the gene symbol for heme oxygenase 1, not HO-1, as was used in older literature). It does fall short in terms of newer pesticides, terms related to drug metabolism polymorphisms and personalized medicine, and nanotoxicology. I did not probe for a lot of terms related to computational toxicology but did note that I found multiple entries related to bioinformatics; microarrays were listed, metabolomics received a short citation, but principle component analysis was not there. In addition, some of the citations for some of the effects of chemicals were quite old (eg, 1992 reference for styrene and 1993 reference for beryllium).
A Companion Web site link http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780124201699 is provided on the page prior to the title page. The information provided with this link tells the reader to visit the Web site for regularly updated terminology and links to relevant resources. On the day of the completion of this review, the link was not active, so presumably the editors have not yet begun to update their brand new publication.
In summary, the Dictionary of Toxicology is well worth having on the shelf for anyone in toxicology. It will be particularly useful for individuals seeking definitions outside their regular area of work in toxicology and for trainees new to the discipline.
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