Toxicology Program Offers Unique Opportunity

Whether it's the opportunity to be a real-life "CSI"-style investigator, or just the prospect of learning about how medications work, a new major in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences that focuses on the effects of chemicals on animals and humans is attracting students.

The toxicology program is an undergraduate major unveiled in August 2004 in association with the college's Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. It is one of only six available in the country that are training undergraduate students to understand the adverse ways that people and animals are affected by the chemicals in our pharmaceuticals, diet, air and water, according to program coordinator Jack Vanden Heuvel, associate professor of veterinary science.

He believes the field of toxicology will play an increasingly important role in addressing human disease concerns. "There's a need for professional training to evaluate the health effects of the chemicals we're exposed to from pollution in water, from pharmaceuticals or from airborne contaminants," Vanden Heuvel says.