The best way to prevent poisoning is to avoid contact with harmful substances. Below are some guidelines you should follow. Treatment depends on the person and the type of poisoning. In this situation, try your best to stay calm. The first step is to get away from or remove the poison if you can. If the poison is in the air, move to a safe place with fresh air. If the poison is on the skin, rinse it off with water and remove nearby clothing.
If the person swallowed the poison, do not try to induce vomiting. This approach is no longer recommended. If the poisoned person is awake and alert, call the poison control center at You should have this number stored in your house and phone. Stay on the phone with the operator and follow all instructions. Try to have the following information ready:.
Call if the poisoned person is unconscious or not breathing. The medical team will provide additional treatment. They can use methods to get rid of the poison before it causes more harm. Some types of poison have antidotes. Treatment also includes measures to relieve symptoms. The sooner you recognize poisoning symptoms, the better the outcome. However, the lasting effects of poisoning vary. It depends on the substance, amount, and type of exposure.
Your age, weight, and state of health also affect your outcome. Poisoning can cause short-term effects, like a skin rash or brief illness.
The LD50 of tetrodoxotin, by comparison, is around micrograms per kg if orally ingested, and as little as 10 micrograms per kg if injected. Assessing toxicity is not easy. The chemical state of a substance is important, as is how we ingest it.
If we swallowed liquid mercury metal as distinct from inhaling the vapour , it would very likely pass straight through us harmlessly. And yet when in an American professor got just a drop or two of the compound dimethyl mercury on her rubber gloves, it penetrated the gloves and her skin, sending her into a fatal coma some months later. Nevertheless, here is a representative selection, in ascending order, of five truly deadly poisons, all at least a hundred times more toxic than cyanide, arsenic or strychnine.
This extremely toxic plant poison was famously used to kill the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov , exiled in London.
On September 7 , he was waiting for a bus near Waterloo Bridge, when he felt an impact on the back of his right thigh. Looking round he saw a man bending down to pick up an umbrella. Markov was soon taken to hospital with a high fever — and died three days later. The sphere had been drilled to take a small amount of ricin and may have been fired from an air gun hidden in the umbrella.
Ricin is obtained from the beans of the castor oil plant Ricinus communis , which is cultivated to extract the oil — the ricin remains in the solid fibre.
It is a glycoprotein that interferes with protein synthesis in the cell, causing cell death. The only synthetic compound in our top five, VX is a nerve agent with the consistency of engine oil. VX kills by interfering with the transmission of nerve messages between cells; this requires a molecule called acetylcholine. Often these poisons are alarmingly close to home.
One lethal chemical — cardiac glycoside digoxin — can be found in a common garden flower, while the deadliest can be seen in many hospitals; just 2kg would be enough to wipe out the whole of the human race. Watch the full clip to find out where these chemicals come from and why they are so lethal. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. The substantial increase in fentanyl deaths has been linked to illicitly manufactured fentanyl that is used to adulterate other drugs of abuse or sold to unsuspecting users under the guise of another drug name.
Don't guess what you should do. Get accurate Poison Control answers online or by phone. Both are free and confidential. Save the poison control number and the link to online help NOW!
Text-to-save or download directly to save our vcard to your computer and smartphone contacts. Download Poison Control vcard. Statistics for DC metro area. Help us save lives! Your donation to our c 3 charitable organization will keep the phone lines open and the app online. Donate Now. Watch out for these poisons! Are most poisonings intentional? Reason by Age Group , column percents What are the most common substances implicated in poison exposures? How serious are poison exposures? Gummin, James B.
Mowry, Michael C. Beuhler, Daniel A. Spyker, Daniel E.
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