History of poisoning

The Elements of Murder A History of Poison. Oxford University Press, New York, USA (2006)... 

The toxicity of plants, venoms, and other poisons used in armaments posed perils to those who wielded them, and the mythology and the history of poison weapons is rife with examples of accidental self-injury and unintended collateral damage. The use of windborne toxins also involved blowback problems, as acknowledged by Kautilya in his Arthashastra. He cautioned that protective salves and other remedies must be applied before deploying poisonous smokes. Toxic weapons are notoriously difficult to control and often resulted in the destruction of noncombatants as well as soldiers, especially in siege situations. 

There is a data need to develop better chelation therapies, better ways to prevent absorption of mercury into the body of children, and better ways to interfere with the mechanism of action, especially for damage to the nervous system. The current literature continues to grow with case histories of poisonings where supportive therapy and passive observation of a progressively deteriorating health status are the best that can be done. 

Scherz, R.B. Robertson, W.O. The history of poison control centers in the United States. Clin. Toxicol. 1978,12 (3), 291-296. 

The History of Poison Poison In The Middle Ages Poison And The Victorian Age Poison And Modern Man... 

Wesseling, C, van Wendel de Joode, B., Keifer, M., et al., 2010. Symptoms of psychological distress and suicidal ideation among banana workers with a history of poisoning by organophosphate or n-methyl carbamate pesticides. Occup. Environ. Med. 67, 778-784. 

Many inorganic poisons are fascinating, however—see John Emsiey in Elements of Murder. A History of Poison, OUP, Oxford, U.K., 2005, 2nd Molecules of Murder Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases, RSC, Cambridge, U.K., 2008. 

This proliferation in the use of color additives was soon recognized as a threat to the pubHc s health. Of particular concern were the practices of a dding poisonous colorants to food, and of using dyes to hide poor quaUty or to add weight or bulk to certain items. References 5—14 provide additional information on the history of food colorants and thek regulation. Reference 15 provides more information regarding the appHcations, properties, specifications, and analysis of color additives, as well as methods for the determination of colorants in products. 

Metal compounds, particularly compounds of the heavy metals, have a history of importance as antimicrobial agents. Because of regulations regarding economic poisons in the environment they are no longer widely used in this appHcation. Mercury, lead, cadmium, uranium, and other metals have been imphcated in cases of poisoning that resulted in government response. The metals whose compounds have been of primary interest as antimicrobials are mercury, silver, and copper. 

The worst disaster in the history of the chemical industry occurred in Bhopal, in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India, on December 3, 1984. A leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) from a chemical plant, where it was used as an intermediate in the manufacture of the insecticide car-baryl, spread beyond the plant boundary and caused the death by poisoning of more than 2,000 people. The official figure was 2,153, but some unofficial estimates were much higher. In addition, about 200,000 people were injured. Most of the dead and injured were living in a shanty town that had grown up next to the plant. 

As diseussed earlier, nuelear aeeidents have not been the only aeeidents to oeeur in reeent times. Other disasters at ehemieal plants have been responsible for a mueh greater loss of life. The worst disaster in the reeent history of the ehemieal industry oeeurred in Bhopal, in eentral India, on Deeember 3, 1984. A leak of methyl isoeyaiiate (MIC) from a ehemieal plant, where it was used as an intermediate in the manufaeture of a pesiieide, spread into tlie adjaeent eity and eaused the poisoning deatli of more tlian 2500 people approximately 20,000 others were injured. 

The fate of the patient largely depends on the first 30 min of an anaphylactic shock reaction. Thus persons with a known history of hypersensitivity reactions towards bee or wasp poison should always carry an emergency set during the insect season (see below). 

Ludwig Fritz Haber. The Poisonous Cloud Chemical Warfare in the First World War. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1986. An authoritative history of chemical warfare by Fritz and Charlotte Haber s son. Source for Ypres Haber s responsibility for poison gas his authoritarianism during World War I and failure of poison gas as weapon. 

Persons with a history of convulsive disorders would be expected to be at increased risk from exposure to endrin. Children may be more sensitive than adults to the acute toxic effects of endrin. In an endrin poisoning episode in Pakistan, children 1-9 years old represented about 70% of the cases of convulsions (Rowley et al. 1987). The causative factor responsible for the outbreak was not identified, however, and the age distribution of cases could be explained by age-specific exposure situations. In general, following oral administration, female animals appear to be more susceptible to endrin toxicity than males (Gaines 1960 Treon et al. 1955). The difference may be due to the more rapid excretion of endrin by male versus female rats (Hutson et al. 1975 Klevay 1971 Korte et al. 1970). A sex-related difference in toxicity was not apparent following dermal exposure (Gaines 1960, 1969). No sex-based differences in endrin-related... 

There is a long history of the use of Aconitum, Delphinium and Consolida species as the source of poisons and medicinals [1]. These three genera in Ranunculaceae family yield diterpenoid and norditerpenoid alkaloids. The name Delphinium derived from dolphine-delphine due to the shape of their flower buds [2]. Aconitum has an evil reputation from the antiquity [3]. The plant was used as poison in old Greece, also in north-west Pacific the natives used it to poison the whales and also as arrow poison. In England in the ancient times the plant was used against wolves, boars, tigers as well as against rodents, and it was also a homicide material [4]. 

Arsenic in the elemental form is a brittle, grayish crystal that becomes darker when exposed to air. It is seldom found in the pure elemental form but rather in minerals (compounds). It has a long history of use as a poison, and many alchemists were poisoned when using it in their attempts to produce gold from base metals. 

Antimony has a long history of medical use. Some scholars believe that Mozart died after being given antimony by the physicians who were treating his depression and who were unaware of just how poisonous antimony was. The evidence for this story is scant. It is also known that around 870 bce. Queen Jezebel and her contemporaries used the mineral or ore antimony sulfide as a cosmetic to darken their eyelashes and as an eyeliner. It is still used for this purpose in many countries. 

Olson KR (1994) Paraquat and diquat. In Olson KR et al. (eds), Poisoning and drug overdose, 2nd ed. Appelton and Lange, Norwalk CT, pp. 245-246 Ordish G (2007) History of agriculture Beginnings of pest control. In Encyclopedia Britannica. 

History. For centuries man has recognized that rodent pests destroy his habitat, consume his food, and cause the spread of virulent diseases. Throughout the same centuries man has sought to eliminate these pests with a variety of poisons such as strychnine, arsenious oxide, and red squill - a steroidal glycoside extracted from the bulb of a lily-like plant, Urginea maritima. 

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