Title: baseline toxicity
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - baseline toxicity
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.14461
Status: current

Definition
General, nonspecific, reversible mode of toxic action that can be produced in most living organisms by the presence of sufficient amounts of many organic chemicals.

Notes
1) Effects result from the general disruption of cellular activity. The mechanism producing disruption is unknown, with the main theories being binding to proteins in cell membranes and "swelling" of the lipid portion of cell membranes resulting from the presence of organic chemicals.
2) Hydrophobicity dominates the expression of baseline toxicity.

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 829. 'Glossary of terms used in ecotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 843 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-08-07-09)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14461/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14461/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14461/xml

Citation: Citation: 'baseline toxicity' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.14461
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Accessed: 2026-06-30T15:26:15+00:00