What is the most toxic molecule/element, radioactive or not, for humans. So far the best I can do is VX gas - can anyone do better?
I’ve heard botulism can kill more by weight, but of course that’s not, strictly speaking, a molecule/element.
Do politicians count as a “toxic element”?
Come to think of it, water has probably killed more people than any other molecule…
As for elements, Plutonium and its kin are quite dangerous. Because of the high rate of emission of alpha particles and the element being specifically absorbed on bone the surface and collected in the liver, plutonium, as well as all of the other transuranium elements except neptunium, are radiological poisons and must be handled with very special equipment and precautions. Plutonium is a very dangerous radiological hazard.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
There is a mold of some sort that grows on natural peanuts that is one of the most carcinogenic materials we know. It is not a slow death, but a very gruesome one. I’m sorry I can’t remember the actual name of the substance, but I’ll look it up. Not an actual element though.
As for chemically dangerous elements, many metals are considered toxic.
As for compounds: Carbon Monoxide has the nasty ability to bind to hemoglobin in place of oxygen.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
Drinking liquid helium will also do nasty things to you. But of course, that’s a physical, not chemical, damage.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
K.J.- it’s aflatoxin, short for Aspergillus flavus toxin. Dangerous at 20 ppb, maybe less. There’s another mycotoxin that might be even more dangerous, but rarer.
Toxin from fugu (pufferfish) might be even more toxic. I’l check for cites on that.
As AWB said, plutonium’s really nasty, and probably beats everyone on a deadliness/mass basis. During the Manhattan project, if you got some dust in a cut on your hand, the procedure (not sure if they actually had to do this) was to remove your arm at the shoulder. Immediately. Alpha particles don’t even penetrate skin, but when the alpha emitter’s inside you there’s nothing to stop them.
I lead a boring life of relative unimportance. Really.
I saw on the discovery channel that there is a chemical compound based on mercury that is called the “most toxic substance on the planet.” It is extremely permeable to many materials, and can pass through latex gloves and be absorbed into the skin. No antidote.
High on the list would be:
Nerve gas.
Cyanide
Mustard gas
Strychnine
and Frito’s corn chips
If I recall correctly, in some strains of tuleremia the symptoms are believed to be induced by the toxins produced by a single cell invasion. This would have to be fairly high on the list of toxic substances, since we are talking about potentially fatal symptoms produced by one infected cell.
Tris
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Here’s a quick list of poisons for you all. Incidentally, Botulinum Toxin A, the most toxic substance listed, is also produced commercially and sold under the brand name of Botox. This is often used by plastic surgeons that then injected this into your facial muscles, temporarily paralyzing them, and thus removing wrinkles for the duration of the poison’s effect (up to 6 months).
I once read that one single molecule of LSD is enough to give a person an initial trip and many more in the future as well.
Anyone know how true that is?
If it is true, I will admit that its not lethal, but it certainly gives a quantifiable indication of strength.
the dose for LSd (D-lysergic diethylamide 25) is 20 billionths of a gram, according to the creator of the substance Alber Hoffman. (see "LSD:My Problem Child) by Hoffman.)
For my money Succino Cholne (sp) is about as deadly a poison as one needs. For any potential criminals out there, I know an anesthesiologist who carries a syringe of the stuff for protection.
the dose for LSd (D-lysergic diethylamide 25) is 20 billionths of a gram, according to the creator of the substance Alber Hoffman. (see "LSD:My Problem Child) by Hoffman.) There is no toxic level.
Also, I would refute the “flashback” myth. Done tons of the stuff and never had a flashback. But then, I am a small test group.
For my money Succino Cholne (sp) is about as deadly a poison as one needs. For any potential criminals out there, I know an anesthesiologist who carries a syringe of the stuff for protection.
I’ll toss uranium hexaflouride on the list. It’s a gas that’s radioactive, eats through anything, and poisonous. From what I remember, they had to invent teflon just to diffuse this stuff (to get uranium for the Manhattan project).
Waterj2, This is such a minor nit, I’m almost embarrassed.
Anyway, from Britannica, “PTFE was discovered serendipitously in 1938 by a DuPont chemist, Roy Plunkett, who found that a tank of gaseous tetrafluoroethylene (CF2CF2) had polymerized to a white powder. During World War II it was applied as a corrosion-resistant coating to protect metal equipment used in the production of radioactive material. DuPont released its trademarked Teflon-coated nonstick cookware in 1960.”
I agree that UF6 is nothing to mess with.
yikes!!! The flavor of asparagus is toxic???
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Not poisonous, per se, but I try to induce vomiting just to be safe.
–Tim
You can’t accidently create a handicapped baby whilst smoking pot. - Coldfire
Thanks, Mr. Zambezi, for the info. Just wondering — 20/1,000,000,000 of a gram is awfully small. Any idea how many LSD molecules are in a gram?
One of the most deadly toxins known is actually a derivative from the castor bean called ricin.
It only requires one molecule of this material to kill one cell. It does this by poking a hole in the membrane of the cell, letting all of the potassium out and sodium in, destroying the electrical potential of the cell and causing it to die. If the cell is refractile to electrical depolarization, then the hole just lets its guts leak out.
No other poisons (a chemical derivative not of biological origin such as heavy metals) have the ability to kill a cell at a one-to-one ratio. If you just think abotu that for a second, it should be obvious why this is so.
But toxins (complex chemical derivatives of a biological origin) were designed by an organism for the direct purpose of killing cells. Therefore they are far more deadly per per molecule than poisons.
Since ricin has achieved the one molecule/one dead cell level, it is one of the most deadly toxins possible. There are some derivatives of ricin that have been genetically engineered for various purposes, so I would wager that the smallest ricin derivative (as measured in daltons) that would still kill a cell would be the most potent toxin known.
The Soviets were the one to first use ricin as a weapon, and a single BB, with a hole drilled into it and filled with ricin will kill a man.
Actually, that is how Western scientists found it. An agent was killed by a BB in the calf muscle, and no known toxin up to that time was deadly enough to achieve that result given such a small initial dose. It spurred large amounts of research on biological toxins, which may someday be linked to monoclonal antibodies to selectively target and kill cancer cells, etc.
As for puffer fish toxin (tetrodotoxin), it is a sodium channel blocker (or possibly potassium, I can’t remember now), and therefore requires a couple hundered molecules of it minimum to seriously affect a nerve cell. But then again, killing nerve cells can have some interesting effects.
Most nerve gasses require millions of molecules to interfere with a single synapse, so they are not nearly as toxic as the nasty toxins. But they are a gas, which means they get around quick, and they have a relatively small molecular weight, boosting their relative toxicity versus atomic weight.
But given a choice of lethal substances to kill or maim your worst enemy, I still have to go with those hotdogs they serve at Circle K. I guarantee a slow, painful death with no chance of antidote.