Toxins enter our body through a myriad of ways, from ingestion and inhalation, from our food and air, to the injection of medicines, and the natural absorption on our skin.

Understanding the thin line between what is safe and what is toxic for our bodies is crucial and is more complex than one might believe. For example as of 2018 the European REACH program had recorded above 21,500 chemicals in use on the European market. Understanding dosage, effects and ensuring these chemicals are safe to humans and our environment is one of the biggest challenges today.

"We probably underestimate the impact of pollutants on the immune system and the onset of chronic immune-related diseases. We must admit that there are extremely diverse and complex mechanisms that allow the immune system to react against pollutants. It's up to us to discover them!" François Huaux, Specialty Chief Editor of Immunotoxicology.

Frontiers in Toxicology is a new, open-access platform poised to foster these discussions between communities, from those in policy to those at the forefront of research. Disciplines across the field can work together to unravel the complex, systemic effects of chemicals. New methodologies will also be implemented and improved to provide accurate and efficient toxicological assessments. This has become even more necessary with the rapid uptake of nanomaterials:

"We need to move beyond the current case-by-case approach towards a more systematic approach both for hazard and risk assessment and to this end we need to understand the underlying mechanisms of toxicity," says Bengt Fadeel, Specialty Chief Editor of Nanotoxicology

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The new open-access journal includes 5 sections headed by leading experts:

• Neurotoxicology led by Prof Ellen Fritsche from IUF - Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine and Dr Helena Hogberg from Johns Hopkins University

• Nanotoxicology led by Prof Bengt Fadeel from the Karolinska Institute

• In Vitro Toxicology led by Prof Mathieu Vinken from Brussels University

• Immunotoxicology led by Prof François Huaux from the Louvain Catholic University

• Computational Toxicology and Informatics led by Dr Grace Patlewicz from the US EPA

"Open Access to research is critical at this point to share knowledge and relevant information that facilitates science to advance. Our main aim as Chief Editors is to assist in getting the best human relevant data on the nervous system publicly available," say Helena Hogberg and Ellen Fritsche, Specialty Chief Editors of Neurotoxicology

The inaugural article collection The Role of the Neuro-Immune-Endocrine Network in Chemical Toxicity is also now open for submissions

Frontiers journals also consistently rank among the world’s most-cited in their fields and in the top Impact Factor and CiteScore percentiles. Discover more