Twenty-five years of behavioral toxicology within occupational medicine: a personal account

Decisive for my long-term involvement in behavioral toxicology were the hours spent in interviewing and testing patients with occupational poisonings during the first years of my career as a clinical psychologist within the framework of occupational medicine. Important auxiliary factors were the innovative and inspiring scientific climate at our Institute, and the supportive kind of scientific education provided by this environment during the years. It has been rewarding and exciting to follow the international progress of behavioral toxicology. Advances in this special domain of research were and are partly related to advances in occupational epidemiology and toxicology, in neurotoxicology and other allied disciplines, as well as to advances in other branches of psychology. But the major challenge to behavioral toxicology during the first decades of its existence has been finding its place and role within these disciplines. Important challenges for the next decades are defining further the exposure-effect relationships as a basis for the standard setting, extending the surveillance of neurotoxic hazards to the developing countries, and searching for better understanding of the practical significance o neurobehavioral effects, eg, from the point of view of the afflicted individual. To realize these aims, further efforts are needed to coordinate the field of behavioral toxicology and to augment communication between those immediately involved.