toxicologyinsight

[toxicologyinsight]

To understand poisons we must first understand what LD50 is a measure of. LD50 is a value measured in (mass unit for instance mg)/kg. The LD50 tells us the value we'd have to consume per kg of body mass to kill 50% of people, for instance if a person weighed 70kg we would times the LD50 by 70 to find the mass required to kill that person. A real world example of this would be Arsenic which has an LD50 of 13mg/kg, so if we wanted to find the amount required to have a 50% chance of killing a 100kg person we would do 13mgx100 which is 1300mg.

LD50 is a property held by all molecules in our world, the most important distinction however is the size of that LD50. Safe foods we eat everyday have such a large LD50 that it is essentially impossible to ever reach the level of consumption to endanger us, however poisons and toxins have low LD50s with many in the range where even small doses can cause extreme harm.

Some LD50's of famous poisons are listed below:

LD50 is listed as the oral dose as many poisons will have different effects and thus different LD50s depending on if it was injected, inhaled or consumed.

Whilst LD50 can be a good judge of a safe dose of a substance, it can concern people that many foods and drinks will have LD50s, this concern can resolved by the knowledge that all foods, regardless of how safe they may be, have an LD50 and only extremely low LD50s are concerning.

[toxicologyinsight]

Welcome To Toxins and Poisons

Hello! My name is hicupalot and this is my blog regarding toxins and poisons. Toxicology (the study of Poisons and Toxins) has been a hyperfixaiton of mine for some time now and has led to me discovering a great deal about them, from their dangers to the way they cause damage. This blog will hopefully help you to understand the mechanisms by which these substances act, the relative risks and dangers of them, and I hope you find this blog interesting.

As my way of saying hi, lets address the misconception that there is no difference between something being poisonous and something being venomous (Its sort of related to toxicology and it's interesting!). Whilst both eventually will result in the same end for you (Death if the dose is high enough!), the way in which they achieve this is vastly different. Lets first begin with poisons.

Poisonous organisms act through ingestion, this is how many infamous poisons work, for instance Arsenic and Deadly Nightshade. Whilst many organisms are poisonous (such as pufferfish), there are far more venomous organisms then poisonous ones. A good way to visualise how poisonous organisms work is you bite them then get poisoned.

Venomous Organisms on the other hand act through biting/puncturing the skin to deliver it's venom. Many species of snakes use this to stun or paralyse their pray. A good way to visualise how these work is, they bite you and you get poisoned.  

It is important to note some organisms can be both venomous and poisonous.

As an aside an interesting fact about venom from venomous organisms is: You could technically drink their venom and feel no effects (providing  the venom isn't ALSO poisonous and that you do not have any cuts in your digestive system) as the venom hasn't been injected (but seriously please don't do this, the best case scenario is you are okay, the worst is you die; seriously it's not worth it).

Now that that misconception has been cleared up we will begin our journey discovering the wonderful world of toxicology with all it's toxins and poisons and hopefully you will begin to have a great understanding of how they work.