Problems and Prospects of Training Specialists in Preventive Toxicology

Abstract

The new chemical threats, existing and constantly emerging to public health require the improvement of the system of training specialists in the field of preventive toxicology. Preventive toxicology is an independent discipline. However, medical and preventive doctors carrying out hygienic regulation, assessment of toxicity and hazard of chemicals and dealing with prevention and risk assessment of the effects of xenobiotics on human health, have only basic toxicology training. Currently, in the nomenclature of the professional standard in the specialty “Medical and Preventive Business”, the specialty “Preventive Toxicology” is absent, and the number of hours allocated for studying this section is very limited.Diploma education in the field of preventive toxicology is carried out on the basis of the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education in the specialty “Medical and Preventive care”, within the framework of which specialized hygienic disciplines with components of preventive toxicology are taught. At the postgraduate education stage, issues of chemical safety and preventive toxicology are addressed only in selected educational institutions, for example, on certification cycles in hygienic specialties, as well as on short-term specialized advanced training cycles.At the Department of Human Ecology and Environmental Hygiene of the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, a separate training module on preventive toxicology was developed and introduced into the educational process. One of the main objectives of the development of this curriculum was the formation of the students’ algorithms for conducting toxicological research and approaches to the evaluation of the results. At this stage of the training, students study in-depth laboratory toxicological methods, the adaptation mechanisms of the organism, and questions of extrapolation of human data obtained in animal experiments, the pathogenesis of intoxication and long-term effects of exposure to harmful substances. The analysis of the system of training specialists in the field of preventive toxicology suggests the need to improve the forms and methods of teaching students, primarily through the development of skills to work with data registries and toxicological laboratories, using the capabilities of research institutes and institutions of the of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare

Comparison of hardness of drinking water and morbidity of population consuming water from infiltration water intake

“…It is believed that drinking hard water is not harmful to human health [3,4], but there is evidence of negative health effects of both hard drinking water [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] and soft drinking water [11][12][13][14][15]. Therefore, water hardness is an important indicator of water quality for water use conditions [16][17][18][19].…”