Abstract
Dear All:
Hopefully by now everyone is enjoying some nice spring weather!
Our current issue of International Journal of Toxicology contains an interesting mix of topics, ranging from an evolving effort to validate a functional observational battery in minipigs, an RNAseq analysis of acrylamide in rat testis, a tumor targeting fluorescent imaging agent, and two articles on air pollution toxicity. My rationale for including a picture on our cover that highlights the terrible air quality in Beijing, China, was not to glamorize air pollution. In fact, concern should be growing exponentially about air quality, which may continue to decline as developing countries, well, develop. We have long known about irritants and inconveniences associated with air pollution, but in a press release dated October 17, 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer announced that outdoor air pollution had been classified as carcinogenic to humans (group 1). The same release also noted that particulate matter, which is a major component of outdoor air pollution, was also classified as a group 1 carcinogen. 1 Left unchecked, an epidemic of cardiovascular disease and lung cancer could be a reality in the next decade or so. Please enjoy the entire issue and pay special attention to the articles by Honda et al and Li et al, which reveal various toxic end points associated with air pollution–related particulate matter.
I’d like to remind everyone that I’m always interested in hearing about any review articles or American College of Toxicology (ACT) Annual Meeting session overview articles that you are considering. Review articles on timely topics are an excellent means to bring additional visibility to the Journal and to improve our impact factor. Session overview articles are a great way to bring the exceptional content of your Annual Meeting session to a broader audience (and to ensure that the content lives on forever).
Please do not hesitate to contact me with comments or concerns. The ACT Annual Meeting website is open; I hope that I can speak with many of you in person in November 2017, in beautiful Palm Springs, California!