Toxicological Effect of HCN

The effect of hydrogen cyanide is based on the fact that it paralyzes the respiration of every individual cell in the body. Oxygen can no longer be transported from the blood through the cell walls into the cells.413 As the vital cell functions are thereby starved of oxygen, the animal or human being suffocates. 

413 Reversible attachment of the cyanide onto the Fe3+ of the cell-specific enzyme of respiration, cytochromoxidase, thereby interrupting the supply of oxygen to the cells, rendering impossible the processes of respiration which are essential for the life of the cell. 

10 ppm Maximum permissible work site concentration, acc. to German law 

45 to 54 ppm Tolerable for A to 1 hour without significant or delayed effect 

Flury and F. Zemik indicate that 200 ppm can be fatal within five to ten minutes, while 270 ppm are immediately fatal.420 These are not, of course, the results of experiments on human beings, but rather extrapolations, in which lower risk thresholds have been determined on 

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