Place makes the poison: Wesolowski Award Lecture — 1999

Paracelsus, the Renaissance figure often called the father of toxicology, is given that credit partly for being the first to note that “the dose makes the poison.” Modern understanding of the importance of personal exposure in determining dose, however, indicates that to a large extent as well, “place makes the poison.” The relative proximity of a pollution source to people has just as big an impact on its importance as a hazard as does the relative toxicity (including chemical nature and size distribution) of its emissions. The exposure effectiveness (or intake fraction) of common air pollution sources, for example, varies over nearly four orders of magnitude. A place-makes-the-poison perspective not only identifies new relationships and priorities among known sources, but also reveals an entirely new landscape of sources and potential control measures. It, thus, has profound economic and policy implications, which will be examined in the context of particle air pollution in different parts of the world.