the action of ingesting, or consuming something orally, whether it be food, drink, medicine, or other substance. It is usually referred to as the first step of digestion
Ingestion means taking a material into the body by mouth (swallowing) Inhalation - Inhalation means taking a material into the body by breathing it in Irritancy, Irritation - Irritancy is the ability of a material to irritate the skin, eyes, nose, throat, or any other part of the body that it contacts Signs and symptoms of irritation include tearing in the eyes and reddening, swelling, itching and pain or the affected part of the body Irritancy is often described as mild, moderate or severe, depending on the degree of irritation caused by a specific amount of the material Irritancy may also be described by a number on a scale of 0 to 4, where 0 indicated no irritation and 4 means severe irritation Irritancy is usually determined in animal experiments The Controlled Products Regulations, describe technical criteria for identifying materials which are skin or eye irritants
The swallowing of certain chemicals can obviously be harmful Sometimes chemicals are harmful in such small quantities that special precautions must be taken to ensure that they do not inadvertently get into the mouth and are then swallowed
The introduction of a chemical into the body through the mouth Inhaled chemicals may be trapped in saliva and swallowed