The finding that chemicals can be metabolically activated to yield reactive chemical species capable of covalently binding to cellular macromolecules and the concept that these reactions could initiate toxicological and carcinogenic events stimulated a meeting by a small group of toxicologists at the University of Turku, in Finland, in 1975 (Jollow et al., 1977). The growing interest in this field of research led to subsequent symposia at the University of Surrey, in England in 1980 (Snyder et al., 1982), and the University of Maryland in the U. S. A. in 1985 (Kocsis et al., 1986). The Fourth...

This volume contains the proceedings of the third in a series of conferences entitled, The International Symposium on Biological Reactive Intermediates. The first was held at the University of Turku in Finland, in 1975, the second at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, in 1980 and the most recent at the University of Maryland in the United States, in 1985. The significance of these conferences has been emphasized by the rapid growth of mechanistic toxicology over the last decade. These conferences were initially stimulated by the attempt to uncover the significance behind the...