Toxicovigilance is the process of identifying and evaluating the risks of

poisoning A poison can be any substance that is harmful to the body. It can be swallowed, inhaled, injected or absorbed through the skin. Poisoning is the harmful effect that occurs when too much of that substance has been taken. Poisoning is not to ...

that exist within a community, and proposing and evaluating measures taken to reduce, eliminate or manage them. More specifically, the goal of toxicovigilance is to identify specific circumstances or agents giving rise to poisoning, or certain populations suffering a higher incidence of poisoning. This way, emerging toxicological issues can be revealed, such as the reformulation of a chemical product or a change to its packaging or labelling, the spread of a new

illegal drug The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary law, sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the Recreational drug use, recreational use of certain intoxicating substances. While some drugs are illegal to p ...

, or a hazardous environmental contamination. Once an issue has been identified, appropriate health and other authorities can be alerted, so they can take the necessary preventive, repressive or regulatory measures. The practice of toxicovigilance often involves the registration of cases of poisoning by

health professional A health professional, healthcare professional, or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physician (suc ...

s, or the analysis of enquiries made to

poison control center A poison control center is a medical service that is able to provide immediate, free, and expert treatment advice and assistance over the telephone in case of exposure to poisonous or hazardous substances. Poison control centers answer questions ...

s. Because of this, practising toxicovigilance is often one of the core tasks of a poison control center. There is an overlap between toxicovigilance and for example

pharmacovigilance Term Given By Tushar Sharma (UPES Batch 2025) Pharmacovigilance (PV, or PhV), also known as drug safety, is the pharmaceutical science relating to the "collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention" of adverse effects with pharma ...

environmental health Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in ...

. They are all are aspects of the broader concept of

public health surveillance Public health surveillance (also epidemiological surveillance, clinical surveillance or syndromic surveillance) is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), "the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-relat ...

. Toxicovigilance was defined in this country by decree in 2003, the purpose of which is to monitor the toxic effects on humans of a product, substance or pollution in order to carry out warning, prevention, training and information activities. (Art. R. 1341-11). Three legislative codes are concerned (public health code, labor code and environment code).

References

{{Reflist Poison control centers Toxicology Medical monitoring

See also

References