Abstract
The fifth edition of Philip Wexler’s “Information Resources in Toxicology” is a much-needed and timely update of the fourth edition which was released over a decade ago in 2009. The book is edited by Philip Wexler who has gathered 5 seasoned associate editors—S. Gilbert, A. Mohapatra, S. Bobst, A. Hayes, and S.T. Humes and almost 200 additional worldwide expert contributors who present a thorough and up-to-date treatise on toxicoinformatics in this publication. In 1982, systems theorist, philosopher, and futurist R. Buckminster Fuller described the “knowledge-doubling curve,” by explaining that new knowledge, which had doubled every century until 1900, is now estimated to double every 18 months (R. Buckminster Fuller and Kiyoshi Kuromiya (1982). Critical Path. St. Martins Press, MacMillan, New York, New York). 1 If one assumes that his estimates are even half as much as the prediction, the breadth and depth of knowledge in general is overwhelming. The sheer quantity of relevant toxicological datapoints and the myriad of mechanisms for searching and analyzing scientific data are no exception to this purported doubling curve and have exploded over the past few years. The fact that the knowledge is growing exponentially does not help the toxicologist if these vast stores of data cannot be accessed, quantified, and evaluated in order to understand their impact. The latest edition of “Information Resources in Toxicology” is a guide through the data—how to find it, where to find it, and how to access it.
“Information Resources in Toxicology—Fifth Edition” is quite a massive publication and is divided into 2 volumes. The first volume is 1072 pages in length and has 79 chapters. It provides in-depth background on the history of toxicology as well as the numerous of approaches to archiving, organizing, and navigating the complexities of toxicological studies. As toxicologists well know, ours is a science that is not a single discipline but compilation of associated technologies and evidence-based scientific disciplines including biology, chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, pathology, medicine, computational toxicology, statistics, and so on. A total of 90 experts collaborated for this volume with 80 from the United States and 10 from other countries. The second volume is 783 pages in length and has 43 chapters and 2 appendices. It provides an overview of the international toxicology community including science authorities and repositories as well as regulatory agencies. Over 40 countries plus the European Union (EU) toxicological infrastructures are presented including books, relevant journals, toxicological societies, universities, poison control apparatus, legislation, and online databases. A total of 114 experts contributed to the second volume. Of the 114, 108 individuals were from outside the United States thus providing first-hand information on the current regulatory issues in their home countries.
Volume 1 is divided into 5 major sections. The part 1 is 67 pages in length and the first chapter presents the reader with an overview/introduction to the field of toxicology; the next chapter gives a fascinating historical perspective of how the science has unfolded and flourished over thousands years. The third chapter reveals the more recent evolution of information systems from libraries and journals to sophisticated technological databases; the fourth chapter shows the current toxicoinformatics landscape. The fifth chapter in section 1 provides the reader with practical starting points to approach the vast array of data in today’s toxicoinformatics milieu. Factors that complicate the organization of toxicological data include its multidisciplinary nature as noted above. Toxicology has also spawned numerous subspecialties including ecotoxicology, veterinary toxicology, forensic toxicology, genetic toxicology, in silico toxicology, reproductive and developmental toxicology, clinical toxicology…and the list goes on. The explosion of scientific data in all these disciplines can make access and review of the data overwhelming in light of that “knowledge doubling curve.” The final chapter in this section provides guideposts and starting points to access these data including periodicals, databases, and a useful bibliography of toxicology information resources.
Part 2 of volume 1 constitutes the vast majority of the book with approximately 560 pages which are divided into 59 chapters. The categorizations by chapter in this section cover almost a complete array of topics that the practicing toxicologist would consider useful including such topics as analytical chemistry, biotoxins, cancer, drugs, metals, chemical pesticides, solvents, epidemiology, environmental toxicology, veterinary toxicology, mixtures, target sites, testing methodology, risk assessment, forensic toxicology, and so on. The topics are presented so the reader can understand how the data in that particular discipline or subject matter are categorized, where they are presented and how to access them. Each chapter is written by specialists in the subject matter and is organized utilizing similar subheadings where applicable throughout part 2 for consistency and ease of use. The chapters are generally organized under the following subheadings if they are applicable to the subject matter: Introduction Resources References Journal articles Books Websites Organizations Database Other resources.
Additional subsections are included where the topic is exceptionally voluminous or organized differently. Conversely, other chapter subsections contain fewer or different headings depending upon what constitutes the best approach to the topic.
Part 3 of volume 1 contains approximately 125 pages that categorize other resources such as journals and blogs, industry publications, government technical documents, and other resources such as audio visual, graphic and nonprint items. Part 4 of this volume is 39 pages in length and provides a deeper review of the databases and software tools available to examine toxicological data.
Part 5 of volume 1 is 76 pages in length and presents special topics such as the laws and regulatory framework which govern chemicals primarily in commerce. The topics covered include the Toxic Substances Control Act, pesticide regulations, US Food and Drug Administration authority, California’s Proposition 65, other US state regulations, and national environmental, chemical laws, and chemical organizations. Part 5 also reviews the chemical hazard communication standard as well as Safety Data Sheet resources and expectations. The section also discusses the education system, careers in toxicology, grant, and scholarship funding. Part 5 concludes with chapters on poison control centers and patents as they apply to the field of toxicology. Volume 1 has a generous 134-page index which is referenced and cross-referenced and is very handy in seeking specific information should you have the print copy.
Volume 2 is 783 pages in length with 43 chapters covering 41 countries worldwide plus an overview of international activities and the EU. There is a wide-ranging array of topics and organizations within these countries since many are new players and others have various public and private organizational cooperation. The first chapter describes the various international activities such as the Montreal, Stockholm, Rotterdam, Basal, Minamata, and Aarhus conventions where international concerns were raised such the depletion of the ozone layer, concerns with labeling in international commerce, and environmental issues with various chemical products over the years. Numerous forums are described which covered items such as International chemical management to globally harmonized classification and labeling of chemicals (GHS). This also includes an overview of the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) which is an EU regulation that centralizes and simplifies chemicals legislation throughout Europe and went into effect June 1, 2007. Volume 2 has an appendix which covers the glossary of terms used in toxicology per the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC, 2007) (http://publications.iupac.org/pac/pdf/2007/pdf/7910x1801.pdf). 2 The second volume also has an 80-page index which is quite useful and covers just about everything a toxicologist needs to know in international regulations.
With such a massive amount of information contained in one place, I found searching for specifics remarkably effective using the digital version. Of course, the print version has over 200 pages of excellent indices if one does not mind physically handling the volumes that collectively weigh 12.1 lbs/5.5 kg. This is likely the most comprehensive collection of toxicological resources written to date. It not only thoroughly covers the United States’ enormous government and private databanks, journals, and organizations but includes almost every country that has any toxicology infrastructure either in print or online. This book was truly a tremendous task accomplished by an Editor-in-Chief who is a world-renowned expert in toxicoinformatics. Philip Wexler has been an unabashed advocate of toxicology public outreach and has been instrumental in making the complex data of toxicology accessible and understandable to society. He recently retired from a 4-decade career at the National Library of Medicine (NLM); however, he is still active in continuing this lifelong effort of making the complex understandable to society and professional scientists as well. This volume is the fifth in a series of books on this topic—all of which he was the Editor-in-Chief. He has authored numerous publications and has championed resources for global risk assessment, the NLM, the World Library of Toxicology, Chemical Safety and Environmental Health and provided in-depth understanding of the tools available to fully utilize the World Wide Web and its numerous databases. This book is one of his most significant accomplishments in that it is current and covers virtually everything in the way of toxicological informatics. In addition, the book is quite timely since during finalization, the NLM decided to combine many TOXNET databases (TOXLINE, HSDB, DART) into existing NLM products such as PubChem (December, 2019) (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/toxnet/index.html). 3 Some databases were retired (Comparative Toxicogenomics, HazMap, Chemical Carcinogenesis Research information System—CCRIS). Others, such as Household Product Safety were removed and sent back to the original nongovernment providers—that is—Consumer Product Information Database (https://www.whatsinproducts.com/). 4 Hence, those of us who use these databases on a daily basis had to relearn some searching techniques while we sat at our computers at the outset of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Fortunately, Information Resources in Toxicology—Fifth Edition explains the changes and has incorporates them into the text, so the book is about as up-to-date as any resource currently available. Another huge plus about this book is it sells for $175.00 which is less than a penny a page! You could not find a better bargain for your science dollar if you want to understand toxicoinformatic resources.
In closing, the second volume also has an extra appendix entitled Toxicology Quotes from the Editor-in-Chief who notes the appendix is “a highly personal selection of toxicological quotations: famous, infamous, obscure.” These quotes underscore how poisons and toxicology are in our everyday life and throughout history: Of course, the most well-known toxicology quote is attributed to the “Father of Toxicology,” the 15th century Swiss physician, alchemist, and philosopher Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim—aka Paracelsius—“All things are poison, and nothing is without poison. The dosage alone determines that a thing isn’t poison.” In today’s parlance the quote is simply “The dose makes the poison.” The fourth century philosopher and religious leader Gautama Buddha contributed “Holding anger in is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” The Irish playwright and political activist George Bernard Shaw contributed “Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don’t eat has been proved to be indispensable for life. But I go marching on.” The American singer, songwriter, and actor Vincent Damon Furnier—aka Alice Cooper—penned a song making the top ten in both the United States and the United Kingdom in 1989 entitled Poison which contains this line: “You’re poison and I don’t want to break these chains.” The former Prime Minister of the UK Winston Churchill contributed this tête-à-tête after a heated argument with a female colleague who snapped at him: “If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee.” Whereupon Churchill retorted “And if I were your husband I would drink it.” The fictional TV character Bartholomew JoJo Simpson—aka Bart Simpson—contributed this zinger “I think it’s ironic that for once dad’s butt prevented the release of toxic gas.” The 13th century Persian poet, theologian, and Islamic scholar—Rumi—contributed an obvious yet deeply thoughtful statement: “The snake’s poison is life to the snake; it is in relation to man that it means death.
Leave it to Philip Wexler to be able to present a mountain of scientific data awareness and still make you smile. This book would make a terrific addition to the personal library of any practicing toxicologist, risk assessor, environmental toxicologist, pharmacologist, veterinarian, or any scientist in one of the numerous allied fields. It is literally a treasure trove of information…no pun intended.
Phil, on behalf of the toxicology community, I thank you for providing guidance through the ever-growing mountains of data in our field by way of this seminal book—“Information Resources in Toxicology—Fifth Edition” and also for your decades of service to the NLM. Your life’s work has positively impacted all of us. Bravo!