Italy

The two branches of toxicology in Italy, forensic and industrial, developed in parallel, and in 1910 the first Department of Occupational Medicine was opened at the University of Milan by Prof. Luigi Devoto (1864-1936), one of the most highly respected figures in this field. This was followed in 1917 by the creation, at the Pharmacology Institute of the University of Florence, of a Division of Toxicology, which was later directed by the famous pharmaco-toxicologist Mario Aiazzi Mancini (1887-1980). In the present the history of toxicology in Italy is well represented by the activity of the Italian Society of Toxicology. The Italian Society of Toxicology (SITOX, formerly SIT) was founded in Pavia on October 20, 1967. The founding members were Prof. Pietro Mascherpa, Director of the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Pavia School of Medicine, and Professors Gianmartino Benzi and Francantonio Bert\ue8. The President of the Republic officially recognized the Society on May 16, 1972. It is actively engaged in promoting the value of scientific, professional and regulatory aspects of modern toxicology