Environmental Toxicology

Reviewed by Bailey Bowers, Visiting Assistant Professor, Earlham College on 12/13/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Overall, the text is very comprehensive and all relevant subjects are covered. I appreciate that both the environmental aspects as well as the toxicology are given similar attention - often there is more focus on one vs. the other in textbooks like this. My only misgiving is that there is a focus on European chemical regulations, but not any mention or detail on non-European regulations. Obviously this is understandable given that the author(s) are European, but I could envision having to supplement this portion of the text when I teach a course.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

All content is accurate and error-free to my knowledge. All content is referenced appropriately.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The book captures the current state of understanding in this field quite well, and I feel it will stand the test of time. The main section that would likely need to be updated is the one that outlines specific classes of chemicals that are used, but this would be straightforward to update.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written well for an undergraduate science audience - it assumes little prior knowledge of the relevant basic chemistry and biology concepts, and explains these at a good level before discussing their application in environmental toxicology.

Consistency rating: 5

Terminology and framework within the book is internally consistent.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is readily divided into smaller sections, and even includes some short reflection/assessments at the end of each section. This would be really apt for assigning reading in a course. I could envision using portions of this book rather than the entire thing, with little adverse consequence.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The text is excellently organized. Beginning with basic environmental concepts and introducing classes of chemical contaminants before delving into toxicology is a great way to organize the text.

Interface rating: 3

The interface and typesetting is the book's biggest weakness. Several tables are split across pages. Mathematical and chemical equations are not formatted properly, which leads to confusion. The latter half of the book is in italic font for some reason. Some chemical structures are rather large, while others are small. Also, the table and figure numbering is not conducive for a book of this page length - each table/figure should really have a unique identifier and ideally, there should be an index of tables and figures.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors were observed.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is not culturally insensitive, and in fact, in the history section, the text made very clear that Indigenous people have important local knowledge relevant to environmental toxicology, and are not in the past, but rather still here in the present.

Comments

Overall, I could envision using this book in a course. Many environmental toxicology books miss the mark, and despite the formatting issues here, the content is excellent.

Reviewed by Sarah Commodore, Assistant Professor, Indiana University - Bloomington on 5/18/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Overall the topics covered in this text are broad and provide a great overview for current relevant topics such as POPs, metals, pharmaceuticals and many more. Some modules have short clips or animations that allow for more illustration of the topic introduced. The YouTube video with the experts was quite enlightening and unique.
The final chapter focuses on regulatory toxicology in Europe - while this is great for students in Europe, there may be the need to consider shorter sections for other continents (even a brief mention will do) to give the text even more international relevance.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The text is quite accurate and there are no unfounded statements. There are appropriate references for the main ideas. The references section is rather short and the reader can check those out for further reading and detailed information.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Certainly, this text covers very relevant topics in the field of environmental toxicology. For instance, primary and secondary microplastics, nanomaterials as well as complex mixtures are current hot topics and this text introduces the reader to current literature on these.

Clarity rating: 5

Considering that this work is still in progress, the usage of technical terminology is adequate. The language is easy to read and sections are presented using normal, easy to follow wording.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is very consistent in its framework. Terms are defined appropriately. While it may have been helpful to group terms and definitions preferably at the end of each chapter, definitions are interspersed throughout each section and that also works well.

Modularity rating: 5

This text is divided into sections that are manageable that can be assigned for reading (even during class) to help address in-class discussions and to answer short answer/1-2 paragraph type questions for homework assignments.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

This text is well organized and modules are introduced in a decent order. The final section on page 823/824 of this current version seems to be in Dutch and needs to be translated into English to help English readers find other important materials (e.g. the YouTube video appears to be referenced on this page as well)

Interface rating: 4

While the figures are informative and help drive home key points, the labels and clarity can be improved. For instance, some figures seem to be truncated (at the time of this review) and individual chapter labels can be provided to help orient the leader (eg Fig 1 in Chapter 4 can be labelled as Fig 4.1 while figure 1 in chapter 3 can also be labelled as Fig 3.1).

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No significant grammatical errors were observed.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is not offensive in any way and examples provided are suitable and appropriate.

Comments

Excellent book that covers broad relevant and timely topics.

Reviewed by Kan Shao, Associate Professor, Indiana University - Bloomington on 5/16/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This textbook provides comprehensive coverage on the areas and topics of Environmental Toxicology. Unlike some other textbooks of Environmental Toxicology, which are primarily built upon textbooks of Toxicology with some additional sections on environmental contaminations and toxicants, this book truly emphasizes both keywords, i.e., “environmental” and “toxicology”, and integrates the contents harmonically. Some chapters, like “environmental chemistry” and “fate to exposure” are very useful and bridge the environment with toxicology.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The contents are relatively accurate, but a few improvements will make the textbook even better. For example, on Page 60, two of the box plots shown in Figure 2 don’t have the bottom line. Reasons for the missing line should be explained in the caption. Another example is on pages 527 to 529, the table has been cut out by the edge of the page. Moreover, the page numbering at the bottom left corner on each page should be in English. Some of the sections are still under development (e.g., Section 4.3.9).

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The textbook should be applauded for its contemporality. Many new but important topics are included in the textbook, including various toxicity testing techniques described in Section 4.3 and regulatory frameworks discussed in Section 6.5. The textbook doesn’t organize the contents based on toxicological effects like many other textbooks in toxicology do, but based on the major components in environmental toxicology (e.g., exposure, toxicity testing, risk assessment, regulations), therefore, it is much easier for the textbook to be updated when the knowledge and technologies evolved.

Clarity rating: 4

The numbering system used in the book for figures and tables should be modified. For a textbook of this size, each table and figure should have a unique number for quick tracking, a similar numbering method should be applied to the equations as well (currently the equations were indexed in some of the chapters).

Consistency rating: 4

Regarding terminology and framework, the text is relatively consistent. However, the book should keep the format and style of the figures with the captions consistent. For example, the color of the words of figure numbers should be consistent. Additionally, for plots that were generated by authors (not directly cited from other publications), the textbook should keep the style as consistent as possible (e.g., the color of the curve, the font of the plot caption).

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook did an excellent job separating the contents in a very organized way. Instead of organizing the sections according to various types of toxicities, the book presents the topics based on the related components in environmental toxicology, namely environmental chemistry, environmental exposure sciences, toxicology, population and ecosystem ecotoxicology, risk assessment and regulation. Each of the sections can be used independently or used as supporting materials in other courses/subjects.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The organization of the topics has been appreciated many times in this review. The topics have been organized in an uncommon way but very reasonable way. I would recommend such an organizational method being applied to other specific areas of toxicology.

Interface rating: 4

Tables on pages from 527 to 529 are cut by the page edge. Other than that, everything looks well laid out.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors were observed.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

No culturally offensive or inappropriate contents or examples were observed in the textbook.