Slow-acting poisons in the name. The most poisonous animals on planet earth

People often think of poisons as a myth from Shakespeare's dramas, or ripped from the pages of Agatha Christie's novels. But in fact, poison can be found everywhere: in cute little bottles under the kitchen sink, in our drinking water and even in our blood. Below are ten of the world's most under-the-radar poisons, some exotic, others frighteningly common.

10. Hydrogen Cyanide

Although cyanide carries a terrible stigma, its history is rich and fruitful. Some scientists even believe that cyanide may have been one of the chemicals that helped form life on earth. Today it is better known as the lethal substance, the active ingredient in Zyklon B, which the Nazis used to exterminate Jews in showers. Cyanide is chemical, used as capital punishment in the gas chambers of the United States. Those who have been in contact with the substance describe its odor as similar to that of sweet almonds. Cyanide kills by binding to the iron in our blood cells and destroying them, making them unable to carry oxygen throughout the body. Most states in the United States have stopped using the gas chamber, as this type of death penalty is considered unnecessarily cruel. Death can take several minutes and is often horrific to watch as the condemned convicts writhe in agony and salivate profusely as the body attempts to prevent death.

9. Hydrofluoric acid or hydrofluoric acid(Hydrofluoric Acid)

Hydrofluoric acid is used in a number of industries, such as metallurgy and even in the manufacture of Teflon. There are much more powerful acids in the world than hydrofluoric acid, but few of them are as dangerous to humans. In gaseous form it can easily burn out the eyes and lungs, but in liquid form it is especially insidious. Initially, when it comes into contact with human skin, it is completely imperceptible. Due to the fact that it does not cause pain upon contact, people can become seriously poisoned without noticing it. It penetrates the skin into the bloodstream, where it reacts with calcium in the body. In the worst cases, it seeps through the tissue and destroys the bone underneath.

8. Batrachotoxin

Fortunately for most of us, our chance of encountering batrachotoxin is incredibly small. Batrachotoxin is one of the most potent neurotoxins in the world and is found in the skin of tiny dart frogs. Frogs do not produce the poison themselves, it is produced in their bodies by the food they eat, most likely from eating tiny bugs. There are several different versions poison depending on the type of frog, the most dangerous is the type of batrachotoxin produced by the Colombian frog called the terrible leaf climber. This frog is so tiny that it can fit on the tip of your finger, but the poison on the skin of one frog is enough to kill about two dozen people, or a couple of elephants. The toxin attacks nerves, opening their sodium channels and causing paralysis, essentially shutting down the entire body's ability to communicate with itself. There is no antidote in the world, and death occurs very quickly.

7. VX Nerve Gas

Prohibited from use by the Prohibition Convention chemical weapons(Worldwide reserves of this gas are gradually decreasing), VX nerve gas is considered the most powerful nerve gas in the world. The danger of this gas, discovered completely by accident in 1952 during chemical testing of organophosphates, was quickly discovered. Marketed as a pesticide under the name "Amiton", it was soon withdrawn due to its being too dangerous to society. It soon attracted the attention of world governments as it was a time of political unrest cold war, and gas began to be stockpiled for potential use in war. Luckily, no one started a war and the VX was never used in combat. A cultist from the Japanese group Aum Shinriyko stole some of this gas and used it to kill a man - this was the only famous death human caused by VX gas. The gas stops the production of enzymes in the nerves, causing the nerves to be in a constant state of activity, creating a “storm” in the nervous system that quickly overloads and destroys the body.

6. Agent Orange

Almost everyone has heard of the defoliant Agent Orange, created by Dow Chemical and Monsanto (which are considered the most evil corporations in the world). Agent Orange was used during the Vietnam War to eradicate trees that provided cover for enemy soldiers and to destroy crops in rural areas. Unfortunately, in addition to being a plant-killing agent, the herbicides contained a chemical dioxin called TCDD (tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), a known carcinogen that causes a significant increase in the risk of cancer, especially lymphoma, in those exposed to it. In addition, tens of thousands of Vietnamese children were born stillborn or with birth defects such as cleft palate, extra fingers and toes, and mental retardation. Vietnam remains very polluted to this day.

5. Ricin

Derived from the castor bean plant, ricin is one of the most deadly poisons. A small dose, comparable to a few grains of salt, is enough to kill an adult. The venom stops the production of proteins that the body needs to survive, causing victims to go into shock. Because of its simple production process, ricin has been weaponized by many governments around the world, and was used at least once for murder, when Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov was shot with ricin pellets on a London street in 1978. It is believed that the Bulgarian secret police and/or the KGB were responsible for the murder.

4. Arsenic

The metalloid arsenic has been used for centuries for a variety of purposes, from weapons production to cosmetics during the Victorian era (when sickly pallor was considered a fashion statement among women). During the Dark Ages, arsenic became a popular poison for assassins due to its effect - arsenic poisoning has symptoms similar to cholera, which was widespread during those times. Arsenic attacks adenosine triphosphatases in human cells, cutting off the flow of energy. Arsenic is a very unpleasant substance that, in strong concentrations, can cause various types gastrointestinal disorders with bleeding, convulsions, coma and death. In no large quantities When ingested on a chronic basis (for example, through arsenic-contaminated water), arsenic has been linked to a number of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

3. Lead

Lead is one of the very first metals used by man. Its first smelting was made 8,000 years ago. However, its dangerous effects on the body became known only a few decades ago - lead affects every organ in the human body, so lead poisoning manifests itself through a range of symptoms, ranging from diarrhea to mental retardation. Children are especially at risk of poisoning; fetal exposure to lead causes pathological neurological disorders. The strangest thing is that many criminologists believe that the widespread decline in the number violent crimes is at least partly the result of increased restrictions on the use of lead. Children born after 1980 were much less likely to be exposed to lead and, as a result, were less likely to become violent.

2. Brodifacoum

Immediately after the end of World War II, the poison warfarin began to be used as a rodenticide (and interestingly enough, it was also used as an anticoagulant for people with bleeding disorders). But rats are known for their ability to survive at all costs, and over time, many of them have become resistant to warfarin. Therefore, it was replaced by brodifacoum. An extremely lethal anticoagulant, brodifacoum reduces the amount of vitamin K in the blood. Due to the fact that vitamin K is necessary for the blood clotting process, the body over time is subject to severe internal bleeding as blood spreads throughout the body from the rupture of tiny capillaries. Brodifacoum, which is sold under brands such as Havoc, Talon, and Jaguar, must be handled with great care because it penetrates the skin easily and remains in the body for many months.

1. Strychnine

Derived primarily from a tree called chilibuha, which is native to India and southeast Asia, strychnine is an alkaloid substance and is used as a pesticide, especially in rodent control. Death caused by strychnine poisoning is terribly painful. As a neurotoxin, strychnine attacks the spinal nerves, causing seizures and violent muscle contractions. Oskar Dirlewanger, a Nazi SS commander during World War II, injected his prisoners with strychnine and amused himself by watching them writhe. Strychnine is one of the few substances on this list that is both cheap and available on the market. It's possible that strychnine is sold at your local hardware store under a name like "Rodent Killer" or something similar.

There are many poisons of various natures in the world. Some of them act almost instantly, others can torment the victim of poisoning for years, slowly destroying him from the inside. True, the concept of poison has no clear boundaries. It all depends on concentration. And often the same substance can act both as a deadly poison and as one of the most necessary components for maintaining life. A striking example Vitamins are such a duality - even a slight excess of their concentration can completely destroy health or kill on the spot.

Here we propose to take a look at 10 substances that are classified as pure poisons, and are among the most dangerous and fast-acting.

Cyanide

Cyanides are called quite large group hydrocyanic acid salts. They are all, like the acid itself, extremely poisonous. In the last century, both hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride were used as chemical warfare agents and were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths.
Potassium cyanide is also famous for its extreme toxicity. Only 200-300 mg of this white powder, resembling granulated sugar, enough to kill an adult in just a few seconds. Thanks to such a small dosage and incredibly quick death, this poison was chosen to kill Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goering and other Nazis.
They tried to poison Grigory Rasputin with this poison. True, the senders mixed cyanide into sweet wine and cakes, not knowing that sugar is one of the most powerful antidotes for this poison. So in the end they had to use the gun.

Bacillus anthrax

Anthrax is a very serious, rapidly developing disease caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis. There are several forms of anthrax. The most “harmless” one is the skin one. Even without treatment, the mortality rate from this form does not exceed 20%. The intestinal form kills about half of those sick, but the pulmonary form is almost certain death. Even with the help the latest techniques modern doctors manage to save no more than 5% of patients.

Sarin

Sarin was created by German scientists trying to synthesize a powerful pesticide. But this dark glory deadly poison, which causes quick but very painful death, was acquired not in agricultural fields, but as a chemical weapon. Sarin was produced by the ton for military purposes for decades, and it was only in 1993 that its production was banned. But despite calls for the complete destruction of all stocks of this substance, both terrorists and the military still use it in our time.

Amatoxins

Amatoxins are a whole group of protein poisons contained in poisonous mushrooms of the amanita family, including the deadly toadstool. The particular danger of these poisons lies in their “slowness”. Once they enter the human body, they immediately begin their destructive activity, but the victim begins to feel the first discomfort no earlier than 10 hours later, and sometimes several days later, when it is already very difficult for doctors to do anything. Even if such a patient can be saved, he will still suffer for the rest of his life from painful dysfunctions of the liver, kidneys and lungs.

Strychnine

Strychnine is found in large quantities in nuts tropical tree chilibuha. It was from them that it was obtained in 1818 by the French chemists Pelletier and Cavantou. In small doses, strychnine can be used as a medicine that increases metabolic processes, improves heart function and treats paralysis. It was even actively used as an antidote for barbiturate poisoning.
However, this is one of the most strong poisons. Its lethal dose is even less than the famous potassium cyanide, but it acts much more slowly. Death from strychnine poisoning occurs after about half an hour of terrible agony and severe convulsions.

Mercury

Mercury is extremely dangerous in all its manifestations, but its vapors and soluble compounds cause especially great harm. Even small amounts of mercury entering the body cause severe damage to the nervous system, liver, kidneys and the entire gastrointestinal tract.

Upon entering the body small quantities mercury, the process of poisoning occurs gradually, but inevitably, since this poison is not eliminated, but, on the contrary, accumulates. In ancient times, mercury was widely used for the production of mirrors, as well as felt for hats. Chronic poisoning with mercury vapor, expressed in behavioral disorders up to complete insanity, was at that time called “the old hatter’s disease.”

Tetrodotoxin

This extremely strong poison is found in the liver, milk and caviar of the famous puffer fish, as well as in the skin and caviar of some species of tropical frogs, octopuses, crabs and in the caviar of the Californian newt. Europeans first became acquainted with the effects of this poison in 1774, when the crew on James Cook's ship ate an unknown tropical fish, and the slops from dinner were given to the ship's pigs. By morning, all the people were seriously ill, and the pigs died.
Tetrodotoxin poisoning is very serious, and even today doctors manage to save less than half of all those poisoned.

It is interesting to note that the famous Japanese delicacy fugu fish is prepared from fish that contains the most dangerous toxin exceeds lethal doses for humans. Lovers of this treat literally entrust their lives to the art of the cook. But no matter how hard the chefs try, accidents cannot be avoided, and every year several gourmets die after feasting on a delicious dish.

Ricin

Ricin is an extremely powerful poison plant origin. The greatest danger is inhaling its smallest grains. Ricin is about 6 times more powerful poison than potassium cyanide, but as a weapon mass destruction it was not used due to purely technical difficulties. But various intelligence services and terrorists are very fond of this substance. Politicians and public figures receive letters filled with ricin with enviable regularity. True, the case quite rarely ends in death, since the penetration of ricin through the lungs is quite low in efficiency. For a 100% result, ricin must be injected directly into the blood.

Vi-Ex (VX)

VX, or, as it is also called, VI gas, belongs to the category of chemical warfare gases that have a nerve-paralytic effect. It was also born as a new pesticide, but soon the military began to use it for their own purposes. Symptoms of poisoning with this gas appear within 1 minute after inhalation or contact with the skin, and death occurs within 10-15 minutes.

Botulism toxin

Botulinum toxin is produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum, which are the causative agents of the most dangerous disease - botulism. This is the most powerful poison of organic nature and one of the strongest poisons in the world. In the last century, botulinum toxin was part of the arsenals of chemical weapons, but at the same time, active research was conducted regarding its use in medicine. And today a huge number of people who want to at least temporarily restore the smoothness of their skin are influenced by this the most terrible poison, which is part of the most popular medicinal product"Botox", which once again confirms the truth famous saying the great Paracelsus: “Everything is poison, everything is medicine; both are determined by the dose.”

When Europeans first met the Nambikwara Indians in the 16th century, the latter, frankly speaking, did not amaze the newcomers with their level of development. The Nambikwara managed not to invent almost everything that man could not invent. Cowards, say, doors or arithmetic. It was about these that the unforgettable Terry Pratchett wrote that there are tribes so unspoiled by civilization that they did not manage to discover not only fire, but even water.

At the same time, the Nambikwara were excellent at navigating poisons. They hunted with poisoned darts, knew how to extract poisonous substances from animals and plants, and even skillfully handled curare, a poison very difficult to produce and handle. This seemed strange to European newcomers, and in their letters to their homeland they explained this state of affairs by saying that these tribes were under the direct control of the devil, so he taught them these things.

Today's anthropologists have not been surprised by anything for a long time. Even in monographs of the 19th century (for example, in the works of ethnographer Edward Tyler), it was noted that the active use of toxic substances by primitive cultures was characteristic of the entire planet, from the Far North to the southern coast of Africa. Archaeological research confirms that even six thousand years ago our ancestors knew how to apply poisons to arrowheads.

Poison executions

Killing with poisons was mastered much faster than killing with, for example, hanging, cutting the enemy into small pieces, or even stoning.

Which, in general, is not surprising: a person is constructed in such an interesting way that it is difficult for him to kill another person without serious achievements of civilization. To hang, you need a strong rope; to cut, you need a reliable knife; to stone, you need a shovel, which you need to dig a hole to fix what you are hammering into it. Therefore, according to the statements of the ethnographer and historian R. Graves, who studied Mediterranean culture, most of the most ancient human sacrifices and ritual executions were carried out in two ways - by throwing them off cliffs and by lethal injections.

The second method was much more common. First of all, there is no need to look for a rock. Secondly, the victim’s body remains intact, which is quite important, since the gods to whom this valuable gift is presented usually prefer that the victim come to them fully assembled, with the required number of whole arms, legs and heads.

According to Graves, the ancient inhabitants of mainland Greece, for example, sacrificed the strongest, healthiest men to the mother goddess Hera, who were called “hero dedicated to Hera.” A popular way of delivering an offering was to poke the guy in the heel (the most inconspicuous place on the body, maybe the goddess wouldn’t notice) with a well-poisoned spear.

Images of heroes dying with a poisonous point in their legs were so popular that later, when alien peoples absorbed this civilization, the image remained in the cultural memory, and since then Greek mythology has been teeming with all kinds of Achilles and Philoctetes wounded in the heel.

Why are people so toxic?

And yet, why did man, at the very dawn of his development, so quickly learn to fight with chemical weapons? Take, for example, a resident of our time - a highly educated representative of a super-progressive era, like you.

If you are taken out into nature and forced to prepare an effective, fast-acting poison from scrap materials, then you, even if you got an A in chemistry, will most likely pick up a basket of sad fly agarics and bring the victim to severe indigestion. Moreover, the victim will still have to be tied up and hit on the head so that she agrees to eat these suspicious mushrooms.

And this despite the fact that on our planet, there are no non-poisonous organisms. Any plant or animal, even before acquiring flagella, was forced to turn its body into a chemical plant for the production of various toxins. Otherwise they will eat you.

True, the toxins were usually specialized, designed for natural enemies of this type. This is why we can now smell chamomile or eat a chop without turning into bubbling goo. Although this chamomile is loaded with toxins, like any other herb. Do you remember how wonderful freshly cut grass and young hay smell? They smell like that because when the grass is cut, it thinks it is being viciously eaten and defends itself by releasing clouds of poisonous gases at the attacker*.

Unfortunately for grass, lawnmowers are mostly immune to poisons designed to target herbivorous insects and microorganisms. True, some begin to sneeze and sniffle. It's called "hay fever", or "allergic rhinitis", to put it in a boring way.

But there were also organisms that chose the most universal and powerful toxicity as the guarantor of their evolutionary well-being. Plants, mushrooms, snakes, spiders, insects, fish and amphibians - many of them contain huge quantities of poisons that are fatal even for such a large omnivorous scavenger as a person. There are even deadly poisonous birds - pitohu, also known as blackbird flycatchers.

So, no matter what, there are tons of poisons around. But the fact is that between a city dweller (or even a villager) and a savage there is a very big difference. It’s one thing when you live in a house, go to discos and bakeries, and see all kinds of nature mainly on TV. And it’s completely different when you live under a bush and are forced every minute to contemplate this nature in all its merciless splendor. Very soon you begin to notice that there are plants that insects do not eat. Or they eat, but not much, and then lie around like corpses.

You find in digestive tract died for some unknown reason, but the seemingly nutritious bird has the shells of striped beetles familiar to you, and you remember that after eating the bird you felt so unwell for some time that now it’s awkward to return to your bush. Do you remember what happened to Uncle Yyk’s foot when he stepped on a spotted lizard. It was a good leg, tasty. Maybe we could find the same lizard and somehow carefully slip it under my uncle’s remaining leg? Or put grated striped bugs in his nose while he sleeps?

Secret knowledge

The more developed a person is, the more he moves towards the artifactual environment*, the less familiar he is, naturally, with the habits of animals and the properties of plants. He leaves this knowledge to specialists. With the development of civilization, knowledge of poisons has turned into special, sacred knowledge, largely forbidden.

That is, created artificially. Your mobile phone, for example, is an artifact environment. Your girlfriend almost certainly doesn't.

The ability to kill silently, secretly and remotely now turned out to be magic and became disgusting. Panic fear of poisoners in antiquity and the Middle Ages largely provoked witch hunts.

Scientists or healers did not have to hide their knowledge of poisons, but they were obliged to swear to the gods that this knowledge would not leak to the uninitiated. “I will not give anyone the lethal means they ask from me and I will not show the way for such a plan” - a line from the Hippocratic oath.

Village healers or simply smart housewives who knew how to expel worms from children, mice from the barn, bugs from cabbage, and fetuses from the womb, if anything, preferred to hide their knowledge, passing it on in a whisper to their daughters.

And it was they who were the first to be dealt with when rumors began to spread in the area about poisoned cows, spoilage on brides and strange deaths. To be fair, we note that these rumors were often unfounded. After all, when the father-in-law has already eaten all the livers, and such a nice castor bean bush grows under the window...

As you study history, you constantly wonder why so many rulers, politicians, rich people and unwanted children died in at a young age for no apparent reason? Rumors about poisoning began to circulate only in very sudden deaths (“I drank a glass of water, foam flowed from his mouth, and he died”). But mass deaths of young people 25-30 years old without prior chronic illness, without pestilence and childbirth fever, look so impressive that they give researchers reason to claim: poison was an extremely common method of murder.

Sometimes the poisoners were caught. Most famous case- the case of aqua tofana. At the end of the 17th century, young (and not so young) men began to actively die in Rome. They all gave their souls to God typhoid fever in a matter of days.

The strange thing was that the terrible epidemic practically did not affect women and, what is especially surprising, children, who are usually the first to become victims of such diseases. When the male population had thinned out considerably, Pope Alexander VII ordered an investigation to begin. It turned out that Roman matrons and courtesans, dissatisfied with their husbands and lovers, turned to Mrs. Tofana (Theophany) di Adamo, who sold them holy water in bottles. The bottles had an image of St. Nicholas pasted on them, and inside contained a clear, tasteless, odorless liquid mixed from all sorts of pretty ingredients, including arsenic acid and belladonna extract. It was enough to drop it into the plate of the source of your problems, and holy water immediately helped to cope with these problems.

It is interesting that some clients did not even realize that they were poisoning their husbands, and accepted their death as a simple answer from heaven to prayer. This is holy water! What harm could it do?!

To avoid a huge scandal and serious shocks Only Mrs. Tofana and her assistants were executed. It was decided not to touch any of the six hundred murderous clients discovered, especially since many of them belonged to the nobility and had the most influential family connections.

Society is now more than ever committed to maximum quantity people knew as little as possible about poisons. Therefore, according to school programs It’s easier to make explosives than the most common poison. We were going to publish here a list of 10-12 of the most common plants, from which you can easily concoct an exceptionally deadly abomination, and then we decided that’s it. You never know...

Because, despite the success of toxicology laboratories and the brilliant skills of detectives in television series, poisoning remains one of the most difficult to solve and difficult to prove types of murder. And this is one of the reasons why the intelligence services loved him so much, especially the intelligence services of dictatorial and authoritarian regimes.

The famous Toxicology Laboratory of the NKVD-NKGB-MGB, which tested poisons on prisoners and poisoned several political, religious and public figures around the world, was not something unique. The Japanese, say, during World War II had Detachment 731. True, it mainly experimented with biological weapons, but it also had a unit that relied heavily on poisons of plant and animal origin. There is no need to talk about the Germans: several parallel toxicological programs were going on in Auschwitz, fortunately there was no shortage of test subjects (and the surplus test subjects were poisoned with “Zyklon B”). Among the crimes that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was accused of was the poisoning by intelligence agents of his opponents who fled the country.

This is if we talk about secret operations. The open poisoning of their enemy, which debuted so gloriously in 1915 and 1917 in the Ypres Valley, allowed themselves to completely democratic societies. Suffice it to recall, for example, how the Spaniards and the French dropped bombs with mustard gas on the Moroccans during the Rif War, and the Americans treated Vietnam with psychotropic substances. The use of chemical weapons of mass destruction is now prohibited by the 1993 convention. Keyword- “massive”. Cans of toxic gases, although not lethal, are freely sold in many countries around the world for self-defense.

Because it is human nature to be poisonous, as the example of Nambikwara proves.

Famous and Poisoned

Socrates (470/469 BC)
Sentenced by the court of Athens to death for insulting the gods and corrupting youth. According to the court verdict, he drank a cup with an infusion of poisonous hemlock (hemlock).

Cleopatra (30 BC)
She got poisoned by letting a snake bite her hand.

Rasputin (1916)
Was fed cakes with cyanide. He didn’t die, we had to finish shooting him, and then finish him off with a weight. Mighty little man.

Emperor Claudius (41)
I ate mushrooms served by my wife Agrippina. The throne was inherited by Agrippina's son, Nero, who was Claudius's great-nephew.

Charles IX (1574)
The King of France, who once received a book as a gift from his mother. The mother's name was Catherine de Medici, and she and her son had had conflicts for a long time. Three days after reading the book, the king died because he had forgotten how to breathe. There were rumors that the pages of the book were saturated with poison.

Georgy Markov (1978)
Bulgarian dissident writer who fled to London and slandered the socialist system from there. One day he had the misfortune of accidentally bumping into a passerby who accidentally pricked him with an umbrella. At the hospital, where Markov was soon taken, a small metal ball filled with ricin was found at the injection site. There was no time to save the writer.

Alexander Litvinenko (2006)
A fugitive state security lieutenant colonel who tried to hide from his former friends in London. But one day I drank tea in the company of Russian State Duma deputy Andrei Lugovoy.

Stalin (1953)
The unexpected death in painful agony happened just a few days before the signing of documents on the mass deportation of Jews - doctors, scientists and other rootless cosmopolitans. Of course, the leader was already old, but his death still raises a lot of questions.

Marilyn Monroe (1962)
The official version is suicide due to depression. The unofficial one admits the possibility that the actress could have been helped to swallow pills by people concerned about her too close ties with the Kennedy presidential family.

Ivan the Terrible (1584)
The king was sick and dying for a long time; for the last few years he could not walk and experienced severe pain (which did not improve his character). In general, all his life he was sure that he was being slowly poisoned. In the 20th century, the remains of the king were examined and a huge amount of arsenic and mercury was found in them. True, this circumstance in itself proves little, since both of them at that time were treated for syphilis, which the king most likely suffered from.

Napoleon (1821)
He died at the age of 51 from a disease that was never recognized by doctors. Living, of course, he was dangerous for most regimes in Europe, but it is difficult to suspect the British, who were guarding the former emperor, of poisoning him. Hudson Lowe, the general in charge of the emperor's imprisonment, was a difficult and limited man (the Duke of Wellington, who knew Lowe well, called him a “cretin”), but at the same time stubbornly law-abiding. And the abundance of arsenic found in the emperor’s hair by experts of subsequent generations does not in itself necessarily mean poisoning: in those days arsenic was used, for example, in finishing work and in the manufacture of medicines.

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES. SHUTTERSTOCK

A poison is a toxin that can cause severe poisoning or even death. The effect on a person depends on the amount of poison, as well as its type. It can enter the body through the mouth, respiratory organs and skin. Symptoms of poisoning may appear immediately after contact or several hours later. First aid must be provided immediately after signs of intoxication appear.

Classification

The following types of poisons are distinguished:

Local poisons, which include substances that act only upon direct contact. These are mercury, arsenic, alkalis and acids.
Systemic poisons. After entering the body, they are sent through the blood to all organs. These are potassium cyanide, strychnine, hypnotics.
Chemical poisons, which are classified as acids, alkalis, salts, gases. These are various organic and inorganic compounds.

Poisons can also be household poisons, that is, they are found in the immediate environment of a person. These are paints, herbicides, insecticides, rat poisons and other substances. Therefore, when using such products, you must take precautions - wear a mask on your face and rubber gloves on your hands.

The most dangerous poisons

There is a list of the most dangerous poisons in the world. Moreover, their danger lies in various reasons:

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Methyl alcohol. Such a substance, after entering the human body, causes intoxication. And if you drink it in large quantities, permanent blindness or even death is possible. Therefore, at the first symptoms of poisoning, the patient must be given assistance and taken to the hospital. The danger of such poison is that its appearance, taste and smell are completely identical to ethyl alcohol, so they can be easily confused.
Mercury. It is contained in mercury thermometers. And if you break 2 thermometers in a room, then all the people in it will receive serious poisoning. The same substance is found in fluorescent lamps. Therefore, care must be taken when handling such items.

Mercury vapor is dangerous, and it begins to evaporate when room temperature. Therefore, if you break a thermometer or a lamp outdoors in winter, it’s not a big deal - the mercury balls can be collected and thrown away.

Snake venom. Approximately 250 species of snakes are venomous. However, the antidote for each type of reptile must be separate. This is the danger - after the poison enters the blood, the antidote must be administered as soon as possible, otherwise death will occur within 20 minutes - 4 hours (depending on the type of snake).
Potassium cyanide is the fastest-acting poison in the world. Moreover, you can be poisoned by it either by touching it or by inhaling it or if it gets in through the mouth. Under its influence, iron binds in blood cells, as a result of which the supply of oxygen to vital organs stops. Death occurs within a few minutes. The substance has the smell of bitter almonds. Neutralized by glucose, so ineffective in sweet environments.

Available poisons

One of the most available poisons are mushrooms. In the summer, when their season begins, many experience poisoning. Moreover, after eating some varieties of mushrooms, not only intoxication, but also death is possible. Therefore, without knowing the name of the mushroom, it is better not to take risks. You can only collect species that are definitely safe. Just one poisonous mushroom from a whole basket - and poisoning is guaranteed. These include false honey mushrooms, fly agarics, pale grebe and others. For example, there are several varieties of toadstool, and some of them are practically indistinguishable from edible mushrooms.

Fly agarics can also be edible if prepared correctly. They need to be boiled for 24 hours, draining the water as often as possible. But it’s better not to risk it and eat honey mushrooms, russula, boletus and other edible mushrooms.

Potatoes may also contain dangerous poisons for the human body. If potatoes are stored incorrectly (if they get sunlight on the root crop), solanine is formed in it. This substance causes severe intoxication in humans. It is not difficult to identify low-quality potatoes - as a rule, their skin takes on a greenish tint.

It is necessary to prepare bread only from flour purchased from trusted sources. It is not recommended to purchase it on the market. If the flour is contaminated with ergot, the baked bread will be poisonous, since the bacterium is not killed by heat treatment. Of course, such a poison will not lead to death, but it will cause irreparable harm health.

At home, you can also easily become poisoned by chemical fertilizers. For example, potassium chloride is very dangerous because once it enters the bloodstream, the substance blocks the activity of the heart. Death occurs in just a few minutes.

Deadly poisons in nature

Scientists have compiled a list of poisons that, once ingested, have a high probability of death:

A neurotoxin found in the venom of some snakes. Immediately after the bite, the victim becomes inactive and drowsy. But after a while, muscle cramps appear, breathing becomes more frequent. Death occurs within 20-30 minutes due to paralysis of the respiratory tract. Moreover, no hematomas or tumors appear at the site of the bite. However, such a snake bites very rarely. It is necessary to immediately administer the Anticobra antidote to the patient. If serious breathing problems are observed, ventilation is performed.
Alpha-latrotoxin, which is contained in spider venom of the karakurt genus. At the moment of the bite, a burning sensation is observed, and after 20-30 minutes the pain spreads throughout the victim’s entire body. The patient’s well-being begins to improve within a few days, and after 2-3 weeks, his complete recovery occurs.
An alpha-conotoxin found in the venom of some species of shellfish (eg, conus shellfish). If you take a shell with a mollusk in your hand, it immediately pierces it with spines. In this case, the victim feels unbearable pain, as a result of which he loses consciousness. After a few minutes, the heartbeat quickens, the fingers go numb, shortness of breath and paralysis of the limbs appear. Registered deaths after an injection of the geographical cone. Moreover, there is no antidote. The patient can only be saved with copious bloodletting from the injection site.
Titutoxin, which is produced by the yellow fat-tailed scorpion. The poison is so toxic that it kills even an adult. It is with the bite of this scorpion that 95% of all deaths from this poison are associated. They are found in Africa and the Middle East. It is immediately necessary to administer Anti-Scorpion serum, which will help save the victim’s life.
And finally, the deadliest poison in the world is diamphotoxin. This is the most powerful poison on our planet. Contained in the blood of the larvae of the leaf beetle, common in the area South Africa. The insect belongs to the same family as the Colorado potato beetle. The poison is intended only for protection from predators - after eating the beetle, it dies from excruciating pain. After entering the victim’s body, the poison reduces the hemoglobin content by approximately 75%, since red blood cells are intensively destroyed. Poison can enter the human body only through the mouth. There is no antidote.

All poisons are very dangerous and deadly, so if you need to come into contact with them, you need to do this with the utmost caution. If you notice symptoms of poisoning with toxic substances, you must urgently call an ambulance. In some cases, even minutes decide the outcome of the situation. Therefore, if the poison is very dangerous, it is necessary to take an antidote as quickly as possible. Otherwise, there is a high probability of death.

There are a sufficient number of natural and artificially produced poisons in the world. The effects of all toxic substances are different. Some can instantly take life, while others destroy the body gradually, forcing a person to suffer for a long time. There are potent substances that in small doses poison a person asymptomatically, but there are also the most dangerous poisons that cause severe pain, which even in small quantities can be fatal.

Chemical compounds and gases

Cyanide

Hydrocyanic acid salts are an extremely dangerous poison. Many lives have been taken using this potent substance. On the battlefield, they poisoned the enemy with cyanide, spraying poison that instantly killed soldiers, getting on the mucous membranes and affecting respiratory system. Currently, cyanide is used in analytical chemistry, in the mining of gold and silver, in electrochemistry, and in organic synthesis.

One of the salts of hydrocyanic acid - potassium salt, known as potassium cyanide, is a powerful inorganic poison. It looks like granulated sugar, and can easily be classified as an instant poison. Entering the human body through the gastrointestinal tract, death occurs instantly; only 1.7 mg per 1 kg of weight is enough. Potassium cyanide prevents oxygen from entering tissues and cells, resulting in death from oxygen starvation. Antidotes for this poison are compounds containing hydrocarbons, sulfur and ammonia. Glucose is considered the strongest anticyanide, so in case of poisoning, its solution is administered intravenously to the victim.

Apparently, in order to avoid prolonged death throes, this poison was chosen by some famous Nazis to commit suicide, since it acts instantly. According to one version, Adolf Hitler himself was among them.

The vapors of this poisonous element are extremely toxic and insidious, because they have no odor. Mercury affects the body through the lungs, kidneys, skin and mucous membranes. Soluble compounds of this substance are more dangerous than pure metal, but it tends to gradually evaporate and poison a person.

It is especially harmful for the population when mercury compounds enter a body of water. IN aquatic environment the metal is converted into methylmercury, and then this powerful organic poison accumulates in the organisms of the inhabitants of the reservoir. If people use this water for domestic needs and go fishing in such places, then this is fraught with mass poisoning. Regular inhalation of mercury vapor is a slow-acting poison. Toxins accumulate in the body, leading to nervous disorders, up to the onset of schizophrenia or complete insanity.

Exposure of a pregnant woman to mercury can lead to irreversible consequences, as it spreads quickly through the blood and easily penetrates the placenta. Even seemingly harmless broken thermometer, which contains a small amount of this potent toxic substance, can provoke the development of defects in a child inside the womb.

Sarin

The extremely poisonous sarin gas, which was developed by two German scientists, kills a person in one minute. It was used as a chemical weapon in World War II and civil wars, after which both the USA and the USSR began to produce sarin and stockpile it in case of war. Following an experimental incident that resulted in death, production of this poison was discontinued. Nevertheless, Japanese terrorists managed to obtain this poison in the mid-nineties - the terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway, during which about 6,000 people were poisoned with sarin, received wide attention.

Sarin acts on the body both through the skin and through the respiratory system, affecting nervous system. Severe intoxication is observed due to ingestion of this substance by inhalation. This nerve gas kills a person quickly, but at the same time brings hellish torment. First of all, the gas affects the mucous membranes, a person begins to have a runny nose and blurred eyes, then vomiting and severe pain behind the sternum appear, and the last stage is death from suffocation.

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Ingestion of this poison in large quantities is fatal. It represents white powder fine fraction, which can be purchased even at a pharmacy, only with a prescription. With constant poisoning in small doses, arsenic can provoke the occurrence of diseases such as cancer and diabetes mellitus. This poison is often used in dentistry - arsenic is used to destroy the inflamed dental nerve.

Formaldehyde and phenols

With these household poisons Literally everyone has encountered dangers for humans.

Phenols are contained in varnishes and paints, without which no cosmetic repair can be done. Formaldehyde can be found in plastics, fiberboard and chipboard.

With prolonged inhalation of these potent toxic substances, breathing is impaired, various types of allergic reactions, dizziness and nausea. Constant contact with these poisons can result in malfunctions of the reproductive system, and with severe intoxication, a person can die from swelling of the larynx.

Poisons of plant and animal origin

Amatoxin

Amatoxin is a poison that affects the gastrointestinal tract. The source of poisoning is some types of mushrooms, for example, pale and white grebe. Even in acute poisoning, amatoxin has a slow effect on an adult, which makes it possible to classify this potent substance as a delayed-action poison. In case of poisoning, severe vomiting, pain in the stomach and intestines, and incessant bloody diarrhea are observed. On the second day, the victim’s liver enlarges and the kidneys fail, after which coma and death occur.

A positive prognosis is observed with timely treatment. Despite the fact that amatoxin, like all slow-acting poisons, causes irreparable harm gradually, there were also lightning-fast deaths, mainly among children.

Batrachotoxin is a powerful poison that belongs to the alkaloid family. It is almost impossible to meet him in everyday life. It is secreted through the glands of frogs of the genus leafhopper. This substance, like other instant-acting poisons, instantly affects the nervous system, causes heart failure and leads to death.

Ricin

This plant poison is six times more toxic than the instant killer cyanide. One pinch is enough to kill an adult.

Ricin was actively used as a weapon in war; with its help, intelligence services got rid of people posing a threat to the state. They found out about him quite quickly, because lethal doses of this potent substance were purposefully sent to the recipients along with letters.

Bacillus anthrax

This is the causative agent of an infectious disease that poses a huge danger to domestic animals and humans. Anthrax is very acute and, as a rule, the infected person dies. Incubation period lasts up to four days. Infection most often occurs through damaged areas of the skin, and less often through the respiratory tract.

With the pulmonary form of infection, the prognosis is unfavorable and mortality rates reach 95%. Most often, the bacillus is localized in certain areas of the skin, so anthrax- This is one of the most dangerous contact poisons, fatal to humans. With adequate and timely treatment, a person is on the path to recovery. The infection can affect the intestines and affect internal organs, which leads to sepsis. Another severe form, which is cured only in very rare cases, is anthrax meningitis.

Despite the fact that mass infection with this poison in everyday life, fortunately, has not been observed for a long time, cases of this terrible disease are still being recorded in Russia.

The Sanitary and Epidemiological Service regularly conducts veterinary surveillance on the territory of pig farms and agricultural enterprises that keep cattle.

You should not assume that potent toxic substances are only the hard-to-reach poisons listed above. Any chemical in large quantities can be a deadly poison for humans in everyday life. This includes chlorine, which is used for disinfection, and various detergents, and even vinegar essence. Fear toxic substances, taking precautions when handling them and hiding them from children is the strict responsibility of every conscious adult.