The following proceedings were transcribed using OCR from materials presented at the “Forum on Undergraduate Toxicology Cousework” held April 22, 1992, in Seattle, WA, as a satellite to the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology.

SOCIETY OF TOXICOLOGY

FORUM ON

UNDERGRADUATE TOXICOLOGY COURSEWORK

ROBERT I. KRIEGER

TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS

WASHINGTON, DC

Aspen Room, Sheraton Hotel, Seattle, Washington

April 22, 1992 - 1:00 p.m.

The participants and a key subject area include:

Marion Ehrich	SOT Education Task Force	Virginia/Maryland Vet. Med. Prog.
Michele Medinsky	Historical perspective	Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology
Paul Ferguson	Introductory and upper division coursework	Northeast Louisiana Univ.
Karen Stine	Liberal arts college	Ashland Univ.
Robert Schatz	Large northeastern university	Northeastern Univ.
Joan Tarloff	Training and education	Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science
Ernie Hodgson	Introductory graduate course; Textbook development	North Carolina State Univ.
Fumio Matsumura	Principles for science students	Univ. of California, Davis
Dennis Hsieh	Comprehensive university program	Univ. of California, Davis
Harihara Mehendale	Rapporteur	Northeast Louisiana Univ.

COMMENTS AT THE OPENING OF THE "FORUM ON UNDERGRADUATE

TOXICOLOGY COURSEWORK" HELD FEBRUARY 22, 1992, SEATTLE, WA, AS A

SATELLITE TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY OF TOXICOLOGY

Dr. Don Reed

Biochemistry & Biophysics Department

Oregon State University

Corvallis, OR 97331

COMMENTS BY DON REED, PRESIDENT, AT THE OPENING OF THE "FORUM ON UNDERGRADUATE TOXICOLOGY COURSEWORK" HELD FEBRUARY 22, 1992, SEATTLE, WA AS A SATELLITE TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY OF TOXICOLOGY

I wish to thank each of you for your participation in this "Forum on Undergraduate Toxicology Coursework". Your willingness to participate is a guarantee that this Forum will be a success and lead to an exciting examination of toxicology instruction. Please let me stress the objective of this workshop--to develop a consensus related to the content of a one year course in toxicology to be taught at the undergraduate level in colleges and universities. Think about the possible impact of such an objective-- just in the context of the number of students in future courses across the country in toxicology-- in my opinion, by the 21st century it could be at least tens of thousands of undergraduate students.

How and why did this initiative start?

In 1979 the Society of Toxicology convened the TOX-80's Commission.

The Commission addressed issues such as:

1. Membership standards

2. Journal publications

3. Development of specialty and regional sections

4. Participation in the International Union of Toxicology

President Jerry Hook and the SOT Council in 1987 decided on a TOX 90's Commission. The purpose was to consider:

"how the rapidly moving events in science and technology and maturation of the Society impact on toxicology and in what manner toxicology can transfer and integrate new technology from emerging disciplines to solve problems in toxicology".

The TOX 90's Commission on January 10, 1988 started their deliberations with a definition of toxicology. See ff it is your definition. Their definition was:

"Toxicology is the discipline that integrates all scientific information to help preserve and protect health and the environment from the hazards presented by chemical and physical agents".

The TOX's 90 Commission ended by publication in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology (TAP 96, 1-6, 1988) 21 recommendations for SOT implementation before the 21st century. The recommendations were in order of priority and in three categories. The categories were:

I. I. Enhance toxicology as a discipline (priorities 1-6).

II. II. Bring better science into the risk assessment process (priorities 7-9).

III. III. Continue to educate toxicologists (priorities 10-21).

Thus, what you are going to do today was of the lowest priority (10-21) and in Category III. Thus, the priority was not sufficient to get you here today for a forum. What did happen? Let me give you some more details of the report.

A question was posed in the report: “How Will Individuals Be Educated to Enter the Discipline in the Future, and How Will Their Expertise be Maintained?”. As a part of the follow-up statements to this question, the following was stated:

“A graduate-level discipline. Reaffirming the position taken by the TOX80's Commission, the TOX-90's Commission took a strong position against baccalaureate degrees in toxicology. Baccalaureate education in toxicology is likely to result in inadequate exposure of students to the basic sciences and the teaching of toxicology as a trade rather than a science.”

As might be expected, faculty members responsible for undergraduate programs in toxicology wrote rather forceful letters stating that it was not fair to their programs to have such a position taken by the Society of Toxicology. I assume, if for no other reason, their Deans would be expected to follow such a recommendation and not favor undergraduate degree programs in toxicology.

Those letters were discussed by Council and I volunteered to head an ad hoc Undergraduate Toxicology Task Force that was charged by President McClellan with:

1. Assessing the undergraduate programs in toxicology and their role in meeting the manpower needs in toxicology.

2. Review the instruction of undergraduate courses in toxicology for students who are non-majors in toxicology.

3. Make recommendations to the Council of the Society of Toxicology concerning these matters for future guidance about manpower training in toxicology and the education of non-majors in toxicology.

A survey was conducted and responses were obtained from 63 institutions including 12 programs with undergraduate degrees in toxicology. These 63 institutions indicated that a total of less than 1,000 undergraduates were enrolled in undergraduate courses in toxicology in 1990. One of the recommendations of the ad hoc Undergraduate Toxicology Task Force, that I chaired, was to give to the TOX 90's Education Issues Task Force the responsibility for the development of a consensus on course content for a one year course in toxicology at the undergraduate level in colleges and universities. Now you know “the whole story”!

Your efforts today could have a dramatic impact on the success of undergraduate education in toxicology. I wish you well in your efforts and I commend each of you for giving so freely of your time and talent for a task, that in my opinion, should have a very high priority with the Society of Toxicology. I hope you think so too, and hopefully, that is why you are here today. I especially want to thank Michele Medinsky, Chairperson of the TOX 90's Education Issues Task Force, and Bob Krieger, Chairperson of the Forum. I thank you for this opportunity to make these remarks as you begin this exciting workshop.