Poisoning

Poisons are, biologically, substances that can cause damage, illness, or death to organisms, usually by a chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, after a sufficient quantity of the substance is absorbed by an organism. As a result, poisoning is the act of an organism in absorbing the poison. In medicine, there are toxins that are produced through a biological function in nature, and there are also venoms that are usually injected by a bite or a sting to cause their effect. Poison, medically, is generally regarded as a substance that damages, causes illness, or causes death to someone after it is absorbed through the epithelial lining such as the skin or the gut. As a result, people are usually said to have become ill after, or died from a snake bite, rather than from snake poison. The main exception, in general parlance, is the use of poison on weapons such as arrows, knives, or darts—especially curare used on blow darts by some South American Indian tribes, and the Dayaks in Borneo.

The Swiss alchemist Paracelsus is said to have stated that everything is poison, and there is poison in everything; however, the dose many make something not a poison. There is some truth in this as many common “poisons” when taken in low doses have medical benefits. The warfarin tablets taken by heart patients to thin their blood is essentially similar in some manner to rat poison. Many inoculations involve the injection or ingestion of a small portion of diseased bacteria to help the body build up resistance. However, there is a legal definition of poison, and items deemed to be poisonous have to be marked with a skull and crossbones, the internationally accepted sign of poison.

Many children are accidentally poisoned, often when they eat something they are not supposed to. Indeed, poisoning remains the fourth most common cause of accidental death in children in the United States and many other developed countries. The taking of poisons by accident is most common in children under the age of 5, with older children occasionally taking tablets prescribed for other people, poisonous items in the house such as anti-insect powders, or medications in the wrong doses. Some 90 percent of these poisonings take place in the home, with the most common areas being the kitchen and the bathroom. In the former, children have been known to consume soap powders, cleaning fluids, anti-in-sect powders, and the like, with the consumption of cleaning fluids or medication intended for somebody else or for them in limited doses being common in [Page 1390]the bathroom. To try to reduce this, many bottles of medically prescribed tablets are equipped with child safety caps, as are bottles of liquids that are poisonous such as paraffin, turpentine, and kerosene.

Poisoning remains the fourth most common cause of accidental death in children in the United States and many other developed countries.

Not only are small children often involved in consuming things they should not, but their body system is such that their reactions to poisons are more severe than those in adults. Parents and other people minding children are always advised to keep all medication properly labeled, out of reach of small children, and if possible, to lock medicine in a cabinet.

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