Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease (2011) 9, 221e222

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BOOK REVIEW

L. Murray, F. Daly, M. Little, M. Cadogan, ToxicologyHandbook, xii þ 529 pp, paperback with illustrations,2nd ed. Imprint of Elsevier, Sydney, Churchill Livingstone,2007, ISBN 978-0-7295-3939-5, RRP: $69.95.

The Hazardous Substance Data Bank of the National Libraryof Medicine in the United States contains information onmore than 5000 hazardous chemicals.1 In Australia alone,there were over 799 deaths due to accidental poisoning in2009.2 Clinicians are confronted with a formidable task inevaluating and resuscitating poisoned patients daily,sometimes under life-threatening circumstances. Theavailability today of a number of toxicology referencepublications has assisted greatly; including a book pub-lished by Australian physicians. The Toxicology Handbook,now in its 2nd edition, is establishing itself as one of theleading reference manuals in the field of toxicology.

The 2nd edition of the Toxicology Handbook is presentedas a 529-page A5 publication that would fit easily into thebriefcase or carry bag. In addition to the “no nonsense”,three-colour, semi-glossy cover, the contents of the Toxi-cology Handbook continue this theme. It also containsa table of Contents, a Foreword by Professor Anthony FTBrown-Editor-in-Chief of Emergency Medicine Australasia,a Preface, a list of Authors, a list of Contributors, a list ofReviewers, six chapters, 166 sections, seven Appendices,and a comprehensive Index. There is no bibliography,glossary, acknowledgements or list of abbreviations. It isnow part of the “Student Consult” series and has search-able full text online, which is activated via PIN provided inthe inside cover of the manual.

The primary target audience of the 2nd edition of theToxicology Handbook is stated to be “hospital-baseddoctors at all levels”. It is also mentioned that it would alsobe a useful resource for ambulance service paramedics andpharmacists. Although not mentioned, the manual wouldalso be a useful resource for general practice and travelclinics, as well as specialist medical trainees and post-graduate students needing to have some grasp oftoxicology.

The Chapters include “Chapter 1: Approach to thepoisoned patient”; “Chapter 2: Specific considerations”;“Chapter 3: Specific Toxins”; “Chapter 4: Antidotes”;“Chapter 5: Envenomings”; and “Chapter 6: Antivenoms”.By far the largest section at 240 pages is “Chapter 3”, whichdiscusses 78 toxins from Alcohol to Warfarin. The

doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2011.08.001

description of the toxins includes very useful “handy tips”,“Pitfalls”, and “Controversies”. The inclusion of Envenom-ings and Antivenoms is very useful from the Australianperspective, but includes some broader discussion ofenvenomings, which could be considered a limitation ofthese sections, except that the handbook is directedprimarily at the Australian market. There are six Appen-dices titled “Poisonings Information Telephone Numbers”,“Example ECGs”, “Conversion factors and therapeuticranges for important toxins”, “Alcohol Pathways”, “Ther-apeutic Over-warfarinisation”, and “Management ofAllergic Reactions to Antivenoms”.

Details of the four authors are given on the back cover aswell as on page xi and they are well known in Australasia.Lindsay Murray is Consultant Emergency Physician andClinical Toxicologist, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, PerthAustralia. Frank Daly is Director of Emergency Departmentand Consultant Clinical Toxicologist, Royal Perth Hospital,Perth, Australia. Mark Little is Consultant EmergencyPhysician and Clinical Toxicologist, Royal Perth Hospital,Perth, Australia. Mike Cadogan is Consultant EmergencyPhysician, Sir Charles Gairdner Emergency Department,Perth, Australia.

The consistent and concise style ensures that the 2ndedition of the Toxicology Handbook is easy to read. Giventhat this is only the 2nd edition of the Toxicology Hand-book, it is a remarkably mature reference manual, which isa credit to the authors and contributors. The ToxicologyHandbook has little competition nationally and only somecompetition internationally. A useful companion to the 2ndedition of the Toxicology Handbook would be the Thera-peutic Guidelines-Toxicology and Wilderness.3 The 2ndedition of Toxicology Handbook will certainly appeal tospecialists and trainees in emergency medicine and otherhospital doctors in Australasia, particularly those who donot already use a similar guide or those who wish to includea local work in their reference portfolio. The cost is notprohibitive for clinicians and other health staff, and the 2ndedition of the Toxicology Handbook is rapidly becoming animportant addition to the exclusive international portfolioof standard manuals and textbooks in the area oftoxicology.

Ethical approval

None.

222 Book review

Funding

None.

Conflict of interest statement

None.

References

1. National Library of Medicine, TOXNET. Hazardous substancesdata bank. URL. http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB (accessed 2 August 2011).

2. Australian Bureau of Statistics. External causes. Released 3 May2011. Catalogue No. 3303.0. In: Causes of death Australia, http://

abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/3303.0/; 2009 (accessed 2August 2011).

3. Emergency Medicine Expert Group. Therapeutic guidelines:toxicology and wilderness. 1st ed. Melbourne: TherapeuticGuidelines Limited; 2008. Reviewed Travel Med Inf Dis 2009; 7:175e176.

Peter A. LeggatSchool of Public Health,

Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences,James Cook University, Townsville,

Queensland 4811, AustraliaE-mail address: peter.leggat@jcu.edu.au

16 August 2011Available online 1 September 2011