Understanding Fast Poisons
Toxic chemicals are all around us. Some of the fastest acting toxic chemicals, though not necessarily deadly, are literally in our houses and backyards. Castor bean, daffodil and jonquil, lily-of-the-valley, foxglove, yew, holly and other cultivated plants can be found in many gardens. Poison ivy and pokeweed can be found along roadsides, fencelines, and in fields. Dumbcane, Euphorbia (crown of thorns, pointsettia), jade, wandering Jew and other plants also can be found in many homes. All of these plants and many more are toxic because of the chemicals they contain, yet we live with them safely. In many cases, scientists don't even know what the particular chemical is that is toxic.
Plants are not the only source of toxic chemicals in the natural environment. Each year a number of people (particularly in Japan) are poisoned by eating pufferfish, which contains tetrodotoxin, or by ingesting saxitoxin (also known as paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) that is sometimes present in shellfish where Red Tide (an algae "bloom") has occurred. Other people end up in the hospital because they were stung by hornets or wasps, bitten by rattlesnakes or other venomous snakes around the world, or were bitten by venomous spiders. Toxic animals, amphibians, reptiles, insects and other living nonplant creatures are more common than people think. There are more than 1,000 known species of poisonous marine species, 375 venomous snakes around the world, an uncountable number of venomous spiders, and a wide assortment of creatures that become poisonous because of something they consume or make when they metabolize or break down chemicals they consume in their foods.
The chemicals in these and other common living thing...
... middle of paper ...
... monoxide is only one example of how one chemical gets into the body and causes a problem. Other chemicals reduce the availability of other elements necessary to the body and can cause problems ranging from mild and reversible to severe and deadly. Instead of decreasing the availability of certain necessary elements, some chemicals cause an increase in the availability and this also causes health problems. Often, the terms for toxicity used by the medical profession are named for the organs they affect such as the liver (heptatoxcicity), kidney (nephrotoxicity), and nervous system (neurotoxicity). Partly because different chemicals cause different responses in these and other organs, there are no simple explanations--no generalizations--for the effects of exposures and each must be examined individually.
Reference: Calculated Risks by Joseph V. Rodricks (1992).
Poisoning was a big problem in the 1920s of America. “The Poisoner's Handbook” tells a fascinating tale about the early men of toxicology, Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, in criminal investigations and public health. Produced and directed by Rob Rapley, the film, "The Poisoner's Handbook," shows many poisoning stories together which tells a mix of mysterious and heartbreaking deaths. This is evident that humans will use accessible items, including everyday household products, to kill each other. The film integrates the birth of forensic science with the rise of big businesses and local politics. Many murderers roamed free until enough political will was assembled to implement a new medical examiner system in the 1920s.
The rhetorical occasion of this excerpt is to inform others about the dangers of chemicals on earth’s vegetation and animal life.
Cone snails are some of the most toxic animals in the world. Cone snails have a small range in the reefs of the Indo-Pacific area. Anyone who gets stung by one of these snails likely has only a few minutes to live. However, cone snail venoms are made up of conotoxins, biologically active peptides that target neurons and muscles. Snail venom used to paralyze the prey so because of their compounds with medicinal properties cone snail can help to dismiss the cancer and produce approximately hundreds of more powerful morphine.
It can kill you! Yeah, this thing is silent and deadly! Colorless and odorless, you never know where it can be leaking from. Can you smell? Nope! Can you taste it? Nahhh! Have you figure it out yet? The thing that might take your life right now, or maybe tonight or maybe tomorrow. No? Well, I’ll be nice and tell you. The poisonous demand that lurk through the air so free and careless is Carbon Monoxide or CO. In this paper, you will learn all what and how it can kill you plus how you can protect yourself from Mr.CO
In Stephen Prothero’s, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesn’t (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2007), 297 we discover the average American’s lack of religious knowledge. Prothero discusses religious illiteracy in three ways. How it exists, came to be, and just how to possibly solve this problem. Today religious illiteracy is at least as pervasive as cultural illiteracy, and certainly more dangerous. Religious illiteracy is more dangerous because religion is the most volatile constituent of culture, because religion has been, in addition to one of the greatest forces for good in world history, one of the greatest forces for evil. Religion has always been a major factor in US politics and international affairs.
Symons, Sarah. “About Human Trafficking.” madebysurvivors.com. Made by Survivors, n.d. Web. 13 April 2014. .
...ortation of plants, fruits, vegetables, and animals. Indiscriminate pesticide use kills the good with the bad. Long term and wide spread pesticide use poisons underground water sources, which, in turn, poison plants, animals, and humans. And, finally, by our uninformed actions, new super races of pests continue to evolve and create even greater dangers than the original.
Carbon monoxide is a major component in smoke from fires. It can cause a loss of mental acuity, acute nausea and severe headaches (Reinhardt 33). Death can occur at extreme levels of this intoxication and it can even cause shortness of breath and dizziness (Reinhardt 35). It may not seem like it is that bad, but one must consider that these things add up and can really affect their health and well-being. The carbon monoxide levels tend to shoot up when the wind speed goes up during daily exposure (U.S. Department of Agriculture 3). It also depends on what kind of duties you have as a firefighter; because those with the highest level of carbon monoxide in their system were a part of the direct attack and those with the least were the fire starters (U.S. Department of Agriculture 3). Carbon monoxide is a powerful poison that can kill you and it is absolut...
Thalidomide is 90 years of aspartame, a.k.a. NutraSweet, Finn, Zero Cal, and other trademarks. The text of the American researcher Barbara Alexander Mullarkey was aired on the Internet by Betty Martini and his original can be found in http://www.dorway.com. This is a free radical for the Portuguese, made by me, Beatriz Medina in July 1996.
Toxicology." The Gale Encyclopedia of Science. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. 4th ed. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Student Resources in Context. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Over the years, society has come to evolve and progressively become more efficient as society’s viewpoints and perspectives on various aspects of life have also changed. However, the one aspect of life that has stayed constant has been religion. The impact of a constant religious opinion on a changing society has detrimental and benign effects on the populace of such a society.
Toxicology is the investigation of the unfavourable impacts of chemicals on living creatures. Forensic toxicology takes it above and beyond, including various related controls to aid in the location and elucidation of pills and harms poisons and drugs in medico legitimate passing examinations, human execution issues; e.g.,
To help keep crops from being destroyed, conventional farmers use many methods such as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Nearly 1 billion pounds of these chemicals are used every year (“pesticides”). Because of this excessive use, some scientists express concern that using artificial chemicals in the farming process could produce unhealthy crops. People who ate it over a long period of time could suffer from degraded health and stunted growth (“Organic Foods”). For example, in 1989, the EPA banned the use of Alar which was a chemical used to ripen apples (“Farming, Organics”). This chemical proved to be carcinogenic after causing tumors in mice after several laboratory tests (“Organic Food”). As a result of these findings there was a dramatic increase of the sales for organic food (“Organic Food”). Another study found that Atrazine (one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States) has the potential of being carcinogenic and reducing sperm counts in males (“Organic Food”). This was further proven when evidence was found that chemicals u...
that can endanger the health of human beings, plants, and animals, or that can damage
Hazardous materials are in almost every community placing everyone at some level of contact with various chemicals almost daily as they exist throughout the community and in our households. Chemicals are used for a variety of purposes such as in the water purification process, by farmers to produce a higher crop yield and are used in households and almost every business. Not all chemicals are hazardous but most pose some level of risk to people...