Toxin vs toxic

[Chris J. Durden]

Ok. That makes sense, but it is still rather uncomfortable. I shall try to 
remember the distinction.
    It reminds me of "soil". Ask a farmer, a housekeeper, an engineer, a 
geologist, a biologist what this is an you are in for a mind bender.
............Chris Durden


At 09:07 PM 5/13/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>In the message below, Chris has explored the relationship between
>"toxin" and "toxic".  It would be reasonable to assume that the
>adjective "toxic" would have the same meaning as the noun "toxin", but
>that is not the case (and probably has never been the case).
>
>"Toxin" refers specifically to substances produced by organisms. Toxins
>are "toxic" but the adjective toxic has a much broader application to
>poisonous substances, both natural and synthetic. Indeed, there is a
>field of "toxinology" (which would be a subset of toxicology, and
>journals with different names---such as "Toxicon", devoted to the
>publication of papers on plant, animal, and micro "toxins".
>
>One frequently hears toxic chemicals referred to as "toxins", but that
>is an incorrect use of the word. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be
>a happy choice for a single word to refer to "toxic substances" or
>"toxic chemicals".  "Poisons" might suffice, I suppose. The word
>"toxics" has been coined to fill this void, but although I use it
>frequently in lectures, I don't think I've ever tried to use it in
>print.
>
>Another neologism is the word "noxin" which some people tried to
>popularize as a hybrid of "noxious" and "toxic". But it never took off
>(nor should it have, in my humble view).
>
>Now there are some interesting challenges.  For example, methylmercury
>is produced in sediments by anerobic bacteria capable of attaching a
>methyl (CH3) group to inorganic mercury. But although this highly
>"toxic" chemical is of microbial origin, I don't think I've ever heard
>anyone call it a toxin.
>
>Perhaps the reason is that "toxin" usually refers to a poisonous
>substance generated by the organism for a particular purpose (to deter
>predation or capture food), while the methylation of mercury seems to be
>a detoxification product.
>
>
>M. Gochfeld
>
>=====================================================================



 
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