Broader aspects of clinical toxicology

This contribution indicates how the student of clinical toxicology may be helped to acquire understanding of and perspective in toxicological risk assessment and the principles of risk-benefit evaluation. The student has to grasp the importance of decision-making in the face of inadequate, inappropriate, or even misleading scientific data. Informed decisions can only result from balanced judgment based on integration of the student's knowledge in various disciplines coupled with some perspective gained from experience of historically-important object lessons in clinical toxicology. Various approaches that may be used to drive these lessons home are discussed. Above all, the instruction should, in conjunction with knowledge of nutrition, play a vital role in expanding the often narrow horizons of the medical graduate or other health professional as far as preventive medicine is concerned. Essential in this respect is the preparation of the student to maintain a continuing interest in and familiarity with the changing climate of toxicological research, thought, and opinion.