Introduction

Abstract

The recent seventies have not been good times for toxicologists. Public confidence in us is shaken, mostly as a consequence of an unhappy sequence of spectacular failures: we have been surprised by a tragic transplacental carcinogenic effect of diethylstilbestrol, an old and widely prescribed synthetic estrogen. We are confronted with a small epidemic of an unusual liver tumor, angiosarcoma, induced by a simple chemical, vinylchloride, whose insiduous toxic potential we failed to recognize for years. Our clinical colleagues had to tell us about the ulcerogenic effect of as simple a substance as potassium chloride. We also just learned of an unusual toxic reaction, pseudolupus, developing in people taking a popular fixed-combination drug, Venocuran ^R. Admittedly, we could not have predicted this syndrome, even if we had considered the possibility.