Wikipedia:Writing about toxicology

This document provides proposed guidance on writing about toxicology, including sourcing requirements and presentation of toxicology content on Wikipedia. This applies to all content about toxicology and toxic substances.

Background

Wikipedia's goal to produce an encyclopedia includes writing about the levels at which substances are hazardous to human health. This poses a few challenges:

1. Providing technical data on toxicity without context is not useful encyclopedic content. To a casual reader, "the maximum allowable amount of benzene in workroom air during an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek is 1 ppm". is not necessarily useful information. Is 1ppm a little? A lot?
2. There are many unreliable sources on the toxicity of substances. On one extreme are pseudoscientific articles that discuss "toxins" without explaining the level at which something is toxic, to whom the substance is toxic, or the risks posed by exposure. On the other extreme are research publications that are too specialized for a general encyclopedia such as Wikipedia.
3. Wikipedia is not a how-to guide, and information presented on toxicology should not present information on "how to" address toxic exposure.

Sourcing requirements

Main page: Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine)

Discussion of the toxicity of substances should rely exclusively on review articles or other forms of high-level analysis. Do not use clinical research directly if possible. All sources must be peer reviewed.

Information to present

In general, the information presented should provide information useful to casual readers as well as experts, with enough context provided. When presenting information on the toxicity of a substance, be sure to include:

• The route of exposure;
• Toxicity of the substance relative to the duration of exposure;
• The levels necessary for a substance to be toxic, including levels for different populations (including children and pregnant women);
• Which populations are at risk to exposure (for example, farm workers have higher exposure to pesticides than consumers, although consumers are still exposed to a small amount).

If research in animals is included, demonstrate how the research applies to humans, if at all.

Avoid stating that a substance is "toxic" without any additional information. Different substances are toxic to different people at different exposure levels, and certain groups are more likely to be exposed at those amounts than others.