[ RadSafe ] Toxin

[Otto G. Raabe]

At 10:05 PM 7/6/2005, James Salsman wrote:
>According the U.S. N.I.H. National Institute of General Medical
>Sciences, a toxin is, "A poisonous substance."
>   http://www.nigms.nih.gov/news/science_ed/chemhealth/glossary.html
>
>I realize that Dr. Raabe was hoping that I would use the term
>"toxicant," but if he seriously thinks "toxin" is not commonly
>used even in the peer-reviewed medical literature to mean poisons
>in general, and not just biologically-produced poisons, then
>Dr. Raabe should become more familiar with that literature.

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A toxin is "a poisonous protein of biological origin," as any good 
dictionary will state. Unfortunately, misuse of the English language and 
imprecise terminology has become sadly common even in scientific circles. 
Uranium is not a protein so it cannot be a toxin, although it might be 
called a toxicant.

Otto


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Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
Center for Health & the Environment
(Street Address: Bldg. 3792, Old Davis Road)
University of California, Davis, CA 95616
E-Mail: ograabe at ucdavis.edu
Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
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