# Questions about iron toxicity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787 "2017-02-14T00:33:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787/1 "2017-02-14T00:33:08Z")
OK, so yesterday I was rewatching X2: X-Men United, and there’s a scene where Mystique injects a prison guard with a big syringe filled with some sort of iron solution, so that Magneto can manipulate the metal to escape his plastic prison. Now, assuming that the guard’s iron levels were already in the normal range for a healthy man, surely such a large amount of iron introduced into the bloodstream would have produced toxic levels, right? But I don’t know how long it takes for symptoms to show up, so that’s probably my main question. Presumably the guard had the iron in his system for at least 10-12 hours. Would he have have started to feel the effects already, or no? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787/2 "2017-02-14T01:19:05Z")
Well, ODing on iron injections are not so well studied as the toxicity problems of oral ingestions. with oral iron OD, the course generally goes as follows (per [UpToDate.com](http://UpToDate.com)): ●Gastrointestinal (GI) phase: 30 minutes to 6 hours after ingestion ●Latent, or relative stability, phase: 6 to 24 hours after ingestion ●Shock and metabolic acidosis: 6 to 72 hours after ingestion ●Hepatotoxicity/hepatic necrosis: 12 to 96 hours after ingestion ●Bowel obstruction: 2 to 8 weeks after ingestion So, for IV iron overload, I’d postulate you’d get into trouble with shock and/or hepatic necrosis as early as 6 hours after acute infusion. Though if you have a really large IV load, I’d expect one could induce the shock a whole lot quicker than that. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787/3 "2017-02-14T02:02:28Z")
Could the literature on transfusion-induced iron overload be of any use for this question, or is it too chronic a condition? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787/4 "2017-02-14T02:13:39Z")
I suppose the syringe might have contained a suspension of iron nanoparticles encased in some non-reactive material. In that case, the iron itself might not be an issue at all. I’d expect that that quantity of nanoparticles would probably also cause health issues, but those might be long-term (i.e., not manifesting until after the health issues inherent in being close to Magneto with a lot of iron in your blood at a time when he really needs that iron). ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787/5 "2017-02-14T02:19:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I suppose the syringe might have contained a suspension of iron nanoparticles encased in some non-reactive material. In that case, the iron itself might not be an issue at all. I’d expect that that quantity of nanoparticles would probably also cause health issues, but those might be long-term (i.e., not manifesting until after the health issues inherent in being close to Magneto with a lot of iron in your blood at a time when he really needs that iron). Polymer-coated iron nanoparticles seems like a lot of work for homicidal mutants. I mean, it can [be done](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/59004), but nothing about Magneto’s organization suggests they’d care about it. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787/6 "2017-02-14T02:32:32Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Could the literature on transfusion-induced iron overload be of any use for this question, or is it too chronic a condition? Too chronic, a different timetable and moderately different symptom spectrum. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787/7 "2017-02-14T17:25:27Z")
How many ounces of metal does Magneto need for his purposes? If it’s more than a couple there’re going to be volumetric consequences too. As **Chronos** says, the real harm comes when Magneto wants all that iron out of the guard all at once. There’s no anti-syringe to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-iron-toxicity/779787/8 "2017-02-14T20:07:24Z")
Here’s the scene where she injects the iron into the guard: [- YouTube](https://youtu.be/xOc9cSZ6hUs?t=2m18s)