Accidental intoxication

Because they are crucial to the course of an organism s response, the rate and extent of absorption of biologically active agents from the GI tract also have major implications for the formulation of test material dosages and also for how production (commercial) materials may be formulated to minimize potential accidental intoxications while maximizing the therapeutic profile. 

Although most toxicological studies were performed as animal studies a few data for humans exist obtained from (1) military volunteers exposed to nonlethal doses of sarin (NRC, 1982, 1985), (2) accidentally intoxicated industrial... 

Taken together, the available data suggest that the acute toxicity of ciclosporin is low in adults, but that more severe intoxication could be expected in neonates. However, two reports, including one fatal case, have shown that accidental intoxication sometimes produces severe complications in adults (225,226). 

As a result of investigations of the toxicity of hexachlorophene in animals and reports of accidental intoxication in France, the FDA in 1972 banned all nonprescription uses of this drug, restricting hexachlorophene to prescription use only, as a surgical scrub and hand-wash product for health-care personnel. Hexachlorophene was... 

More recent studies of carefully identified mushroom material from the European Panaeolus species did not document substantial amounts of psilocin in these samples. Also, "chemical races" associated with specific species could not be established. I believe that almost all accidental intoxications can be traced to ingestion of Panaeolus subbalteatus, with the possible exception of one case caused by an imported tropical species. Very little is said in the literature about Panaeolus retimes, its area of distribution and chemical composition. The intoxication case from Bremen, however, indicates that this species is psychoactive (see Figure 28). In 1985,1 found two fruiting bodies in a pasture, whose dried weight contained 0.03 - 0.05 % psilocybin, as well as serotonin. All of the mushrooms features, such as wrinkled, fleshcolored caps, corresponded to descriptions of Panaeolus retirugis. 

Alkaloid concentrations were found to be higher in smaller mushrooms, as shown in Table 8. Larger mushrooms contained about 0.1 % of both psilocin and psilocybin. I am not aware of any cases of accidental intoxication nor any self experiments involving Gymnopilus purpuratus. 

No accidental intoxications involving Pluteus species have been documented in the literature. 

Although iron is not an environmental poison, accidental intoxication with ferrous salts used to treat iron deficiency is a frequently encountered source of poisoning in young children, iron is discussed further in Chapter 53. 

During the last decade parathion has been the most used organo-phosphorus insecticide. It has been proved to be valuable in crop protection 27). However, using this compound so much has also resulted in numerous accidental intoxications, and many have been lethal 28). In aquatic environments parathion hydrolyzes to yield p-nitro-phenol or oxidizes to yield paraoxon (25, 26). Baker (29) has shown that substituted phenols aflFect the odor quality of drinking water. p-Nitrophenol may be chlorinated at a water treatment plant to produce an odorous product. The U. S. Public Health Service has adopted 1 /xg/liter as a limit for phenolic compounds in water (10). Paraoxon is more toxic to insects and mammals than the parent compound parathion (27). The lethal dose (LD50) for male white rats is 14 mg/kg for parathion while that determined for paraoxon is only 3 mg/kg (30). Bioassay studies with fathead minnows indicated a Median Tolerance Limit (TLni) (96 hours) for parathion of 1.4 mg/liter and 0.3 mg/liter for paraoxon. 

II. Toxic dose. The minimum acute toxic oral overdose is approximately 20 mg/kg. Because phenytoin exhibits dose-dependent elimination Irinetics, accidental intoxication can easily occur in patients on chronic therapy owing to dmg interactions or slight dosage adjustments. 

Grobosch, T., T. Binscheck, F. Martens, and D. Lampe. 2008. Accidental intoxication with Veratrum album. J. Anal. Toxicol. 39(9) 768-773. 

Book A, Fehlandt C, Krija M, Radke M, Pappert D. Methemoglobin intoxication by prilocaine in EMLA. Accidental intoxication of an infant with scald injuries. Anaesthesist 2009 58(4) 370-4. 

A number of isolated incidents attributed to the use of ginkgo have recently appeared in the literature, including accidental intoxication of 2-year-old male and female, exanthematous pustulosis, spontaneous bleeding, " and ventricular arrhythmia. ... 

Although most toxicological studies were performed as animal studies, some data about humans exist, which were obtained from military volunteers exposed to nonlethal doses of sarin (NRC, 1982, 1985), accidentally intoxicated industrial workers (Duffy et al., 1979), and poisoned civilians affected by terrorist attacks in Tokyo in 1995, Matsumoto in 1994, and Osaka (Morita et al., 1995 Okumura et al., 1996 Tsuchihashi et al., 1998). For detailed data on these events, see the reports of the Committee on Health Effects Associated with Exposures During the Gulf War (2000). 

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