Ecotoxicology

The teaching aims to provide students with the knowledge of issues related to the impact of humans to the environment through the environmental risk assessment due to different environmental contaminants. In particular, the issues related to the distribution of pollutants in the various environmental compartments, their intake through organisms, bioaccumulation and the negative effects that they can cause in animals and humans will be discussed. Another educational objective of the teaching will be to provide the concepts relating to the acute and chronic toxicity and their measurement by means of classic ecotoxicological tests and other methods for evaluating the toxicological effect.

At the end of the teaching the student will be able to use the technical terminology related to the concepts of ecotoxicology and recognize the different categories of different environmental contaminants. Moreover, he will have to know the concepts of the environmental risk assessment related to the introduction of pollutants of anthropic origin into the environment and to the different ecotoxicological methods that allow this assessment. Finally, he will be able to know the principles related to how dangerous substances enter organisms, how they are distributed in body districts and the effects they have on organisms, including humans.