Abstract
Both these books provide complementary content on toxicology of the respiratory tract, in general, and toxicologic effects of inhaled materials on the lung, specifically. Most of the writing would be more pertinent to toxicologists, but pathologists in industry and academia who focus on toxicology of inhaled air pollutants, occupational, or environmental dusts, and inhaled pharmaceuticals/biologicals would benefit from both the general background and specific examples of inhalation toxicology given by these texts. In the fourth edition of Toxicology of the Lung, chapters on current topics, such as pulmonary immunotoxicology and the effects of inhaled nanoparticles, add to the fundamentals presented previously in the third edition (i.e., inhalation exposure systems design, comparative structure of the nasal airways). Pathologists might benefit from new chapters on safety assessment of inhaled therapeutic agents and pulmonary immunotoxicology. Other chapters depict topics of current interest such as in vitro modeling of lung toxicology and effects of inhaled nanoparticles. Thus, the fourth edition cannot be regarded as a simple rewriting and updating of content but may be regarded as a completely new set of information, just as the third edition (1999) was additive to the authors and topics of the second (1987). Similar to Toxicology of the Lung, the new edition of Inhalation Toxicology is an exhaustive but additive and long awaited companion to the first edition (1987). In the second edition, over 75 contributors, compared to 16 in 1987, have compiled 40 chapters subdivided into 4 parts on such topics as methods for measurement of inhalation toxicologic endpoints, toxicology of specific inhaled materials, and, of current relevance, inhalation toxicology of bioaerosols. Industry pathologists might be interested in the NTP's review on toxicity and tumors induced in rodents by inhaled materials, and pathologists with an interest in risk assessment may be especially intrigued by opinions of authors from the EPA, a chapter on how guidelines are promulgated that melds both U. S. and European views on safe exposure levels to a variety of agents, and relatively new concepts of how “dose” of inhaled material is modeled. Again, the text may be more appropriate for inhalation toxicologists, and it suffers from somewhat disjointed organization of monographic chapters, rather cursory pathologic descriptions, and poor gray-scale graphics, but discussions and updates on basic topics, such as toxicokinetics, chemosensory irritation, and inhalation toxicology of a variety of substances (carbon monoxide, inhaled dusts and fibers, molds, benzene, cigarette smoke, etc.), are immensely helpful to pathologists in the field of inhalation toxicology. None of the topics or authors in Inhalation Toxicology are particularly duplicative of those in Toxicology of the Lung; consequently, inhalation toxicologic pathologists would benefit from both of these texts.