Environmental and Molecular Toxicology

The Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology offers baccalaureate degree students at Oregon State University an undergraduate minor in Toxicology. There is a growing interest in protecting human and environmental health, environmental toxicology, and computational toxicology making this a contemporary field of study for undergraduate students. The field of toxicology is highly multidisciplinary, which makes it a great minor to all sciences and technology-related degrees. The minor in toxicology is intended to provide undergraduate students an understanding of how chemicals and physical agents can adversely affect biological systems and the environment, including mechanisms of chemically induced toxicity, the source, fate, and effects of chemicals in the environment and evaluation of chemical hazards and risk.

Successful completion of a minor allows students to:

• Understand the core concepts of the science of toxicology, including hazard identification, exposure assessment, doseresponse assessment and an understanding of  the mechanisms of action and effects of toxic chemicals at multiple levels of biological organization
• Develop technical and experimental approaches in toxicological research, testing and risk assessment
• Communicate and conduct scientific analysis, including the ability to analyze relationships, draw appropriate conclusions supported by data, and articulate in writing and orally a critical perspective using evidence as support
• Connect the role of toxicology in society, including the importance of risk analysis, management, and communication
• Identify and discuss contemporary issues in toxicology

Courses to earn a Minor in Toxicology

An undergraduate Toxicology minor requires a minimum of 27 credit hours (CR). Ten credit hours are required courses, 6 restricted toxicology electives, and the remaining twelve hours are made up of credits from either the Research or Didactic option. The course distribution is as follows:

Required Courses (10 credits)

*Acceptable substitutions: ST 201 and ST 202 [Principles of Statistics; 8 CR total] OR ST 314 [Introduction to Statistics for Engineers; 3 CR]

Restricted Toxicology Electives (6 credits)

Minor Option (12 credits)

1. Research

2. Didactic

As Toxicology is an applied science with relevant questions in many different disciplines of science, the goal is to ensure students have broader expertise and exposure in the sciences. Thus, we don't allow choosing all the electives from a single department, but any upper-division, non-blanket courses from the subjects below would apply.

A minimum of 4 upper-division science electives that constitute up to a minimum of 12 credits. It is highly recommended a TOX elective is a component of the didactic option.

• No more than 6 credits can be selected from the same course prefix
• Blank courses cannot be applied to this requirement

Elective course options from these subject prefixes (ie: BRR, TOX) are acceptable: