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Specialty Uses of Chemicals

Medical Definition:	Uses of chemicals in a research, industrial, or household setting. This does not include PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIONS.
Guide Notes:	not used for indexing CATALOG: do not use

Specialty Uses of Chemicals Categories.

	Adhesives - Substances that cause the adherence of two surfaces. They include glues (properly collagen-derived adhesives), mucilages, sticky pastes, gums, resins, or latex.
	Agrochemicals - Chemicals used in agriculture. These include pesticides, fumigants, fertilizers, plant hormones, steroids, antibiotics, mycotoxins, etc.
	Caustics - Strong alkaline chemicals that destroy soft body tissues resulting in a deep, penetrating type of burn, in contrast to corrosives, that result in a more superficial type of damage via chemical means or inflammation. Caustics are usually hydroxides of light metals. SODIUM HYDROXIDE and potassium hydroxide are the most widely used caustic agents in industry. Medically, they have been used externally to remove diseased or dead tissues and destroy warts and small tumors. The accidental ingestion of products (household and industrial) containing caustic ingredients results in thousands of injuries per year.
	Contrast Media - Substances used in radiography that allow visualization of certain tissues.
	Cosmetics - Substances intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body's structure or functions. Included in this definition are skin creams, lotions, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail polishes, eye and facial makeup preparations, permanent waves, hair colors, toothpastes, and deodorants, as well as any material intended for use as a component of a cosmetic product. (U.S. Food & Drug Administration Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition Office of Cosmetics Fact Sheet (web page) Feb 1995)
	Fixatives - Agents employed in the preparation of histologic or pathologic specimens for the purpose of maintaining the existing form and structure of all of the constituent elements. Great numbers of different agents are used; some are also decalcifying and hardening agents. They must quickly kill and coagulate living tissue.
	Flame Retardants - Materials applied to fabrics, bedding, furniture, plastics, etc. to retard their burning; many may leach out and cause allergies or other harm.
	Flavoring Agents - Substances added to foods and medicine to improve the quality of taste.
	Food Additives - Substances which are of little or no nutritive value, but are used in the processing or storage of foods or animal feed, especially in the developed countries; includes ANTIOXIDANTS; FOOD PRESERVATIVES; FOOD COLORING AGENTS; FLAVORING AGENTS; ANTI-INFECTIVE AGENTS (both plain and LOCAL); VEHICLES; EXCIPIENTS and other similarly used substances. Many of the same substances are PHARMACEUTIC AIDS when added to pharmaceuticals rather than to foods.
	Irritants - Drugs that act locally on cutaneous or mucosal surfaces to produce inflammation; those that cause redness due to hyperemia are rubefacients; those that raise blisters are vesicants and those that penetrate sebaceous glands and cause abscesses are pustulants; tear gases and mustard gases are also irritants.
	Laboratory Chemicals - Chemicals necessary to perform experimental and/or investigative procedures and for the preparation of drugs and other chemicals.
	Oxidants - Oxidizing agents or electron-accepting molecules in chemical reactions in which electrons are transferred from one molecule to another (OXIDATION-REDUCTION). In vivo, it appears that phagocyte-generated oxidants function as tumor promoters or cocarcinogens rather than as complete carcinogens perhaps because of the high levels of endogenous antioxidant defenses. It is also thought that oxidative damage in joints may trigger the autoimmune response that characterizes the persistence of the rheumatoid disease process.
	Pesticides - Chemicals used to destroy pests of any sort. The concept includes fungicides (FUNGICIDES, INDUSTRIAL); INSECTICIDES; RODENTICIDES; etc.
	Poisons - Substances which, when ingested, inhaled, or absorbed, or when applied to, injected into, or developed within the body in relatively small amounts may, by their chemical action, cause damage to structure or disturbance of function. (From Dorland, 27th ed)
	Riot Control Agents, Chemical - Chemical substances which are employed during a riot in order to control or disperse the rioting parties.
	Solvents - Liquids that dissolve other substances (solutes), generally solids, without any change in chemical composition, as, water containing sugar. (Grant & Hackh's Chemical Dictionary, 5th ed)
	Surface-Active Agents - Agents that modify interfacial tension of water; usually substances that have one lipophilic and one hydrophilic group in the molecule; includes soaps, detergents, emulsifiers, dispersing and wetting agents, and several groups of antiseptics.

Specialty Uses of Chemicals Medical Definitions and Terms

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