# someone debunk this e-mail I just got **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414 "2002-04-18T23:30:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cleric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@Cleric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleric)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/1 "2002-04-18T23:30:48Z")
[e-mail addy deleted] wrote: \> \>\>gf wrote \>\>this is a horrible way to go…if you succeed. Try this method: Everyone \>\>knows \>\>that urine is disgusting. Few know that it’s potentially fatal. If you \>\>don’t believe me …try it \>\>yourself. Mix urine with sugar. Let it sit for a week while it slowly \>\>turns into arsenic. Mix it with \>\>kool-aid…and you got a Bum’s \>\>method of suicide. Check Albany,Ny city ordinace 7124.11 prohibiting \>\>the practice of giving free \>\>sugar away. In 1988, there was a total of 30 reported \>\>suicide with this method. See you in the hell! \>\>habib Raj seems like a suicide method _I deleted the e-mail address - **DrMatrix** _ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/2 "2002-04-18T23:56:11Z")
Well, urine and sugar aren’t going to make arsenic, which is a separate element that isn’t present in either. Could it make another poisonous compound? Maybe, but I doubt it. Urine may be disgusting, but it isn’t poisonous. (Sailor dying of thirst die from drinking their urine, but that’s because they overdose on the salt in it. It wouldn’t kill you all that quickly, and you’d probably survive if you had access to fresh water.) Finally, I live in the Albany, NY, area and AFAIK there is no ordinance against giving away free sugar. You can pick up packets of sugar in any restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/3 "2002-04-19T01:26:02Z")
“Everyone knows that urine is digusting” No argument there, although there are some health nuts and Indian gurus who practice drinking their urine. Not me. I’m starting to gag just thinking about it. I’d better stop . . . ---
**Author:** ![SoulSearching](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@SoulSearching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulSearching)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/4 "2002-04-19T02:23:59Z")
if u let urine sit long enough, doesn’t it form ammonia type crystals which is obviously very harmful ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/5 "2002-04-19T02:47:45Z")
urine is completely sterile. Arsenic can only be made from something else with an atom smasher, and I don’t think sugar does that. Urine does contain urea and uric acid, both of which are harmless in the quantity they are in. Sugar is just carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Nothing too dangerous there. Ammonia boils at such a low temperature it would evaporate away in a week or neutralize itself by absorbing more water. Look up that law. My bet is that it does not exist. And SoulSearching, ammonia only sets up crystals at very very low temperatures. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/6 "2002-04-19T03:39:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Arsenic can only be made from something else with an atom smasher So when Socrates was made to drink arsenic, the Greeks used their _atom smasher_ to create it? You _do_ live in a cave! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/7 "2002-04-19T03:47:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by postcards \* > \*\* > > So when Socrates was made to drink arsenic, the Greeks used their _atom smasher_ to create it? > > You _do_ live in a cave! \*\* Socrates was made to drink _hemlock_, and arsenic is an element found easily enough on the periodic table (i.e. a substance made up of uniform atoms, like iron and gold, and not the product of a chemical mixture). Arsenic is a metal and can be found in alloys with other metals, refined and used casually to poison people in huge numbers, though Socrates wasn’t one of them. There’s a cave-dweller about, but it ain’t (necessarily) red\_dragon. ---
**Author:** ![Epistaxis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@Epistaxis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epistaxis)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/8 "2002-04-19T04:08:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by postcards \* > \*\* > > So when Socrates was made to drink arsenic, the Greeks used their _atom smasher_ to create it? > > You _do_ live in a cave! \*\* That’s the only way you can make it FROM SOMETHING ELSE… it still exists on its own of course ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/9 "2002-04-19T05:17:18Z")
So, you can make arsenic from, say, old lace by putting it in a particle accelerator, causing a collision, and re-assembling the subatomic particles into arsenic? Sign me up. 'Cept I want to study making Platinum from navel lint. ---
**Author:** ![BalmainBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@BalmainBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BalmainBoy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/10 "2002-04-19T06:53:30Z")
Sorry, I’m not feeling well today, spent last night on the piss… ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/11 "2002-04-19T09:50:40Z")
In theory, you can transmute any element into any other elment by nuclear processes, but the cost is going to be far more expensive than conventional methods. ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/12 "2002-04-19T12:05:24Z")
Yeah, you can stick a proton on mercury with an atom smasher and make gold. How’s that for a philosopher’s stone! ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/13 "2002-04-19T13:57:38Z")
**Hemlock!** Right! I stand corrected. The truth is, it took me a while just to remember it was Socrates who was made to drink _some_ kinda poison. ---
**Author:** ![Pythagoras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@Pythagoras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagoras)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/14 "2002-04-19T16:30:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Cynical \* > \*\*So, you can make arsenic from, say, old lace by putting it in a particle accelerator, causing a collision, and re-assembling the subatomic particles into arsenic? > > Sign me up. 'Cept I want to study making Platinum from navel lint. \*\* I suppose if a substance, like Hemlock, contained Arsenic, you could get pure Arsenic by Hemlock’s decomposition, hence forming the element Arsenic from something else… ---
**Author:** ![mostundudelike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@mostundudelike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mostundudelike)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/15 "2002-04-19T21:19:52Z")
I’ve always heard that the inside of a peach pit contains arsenic. Any truth to that? Although admittedly I can’t imagine anyone urinating peach pits. ---
**Author:** ![Newton\_meter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/57b2e6/32.png) [@Newton\_meter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newton_meter)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/16 "2002-04-19T21:56:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mostundudelike \* > **I’ve always heard that the inside of a peach pit contains arsenic. Any truth to that?** Cyanide, not arsenic. [Yes there is](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_212.html) truth to it. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/17 "2002-04-20T05:16:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pythagoras \* > \*\* > > I suppose if a substance, like Hemlock, contained Arsenic, you could get pure Arsenic by Hemlock’s decomposition, hence forming the element Arsenic from something else… \*\* The kicker here is that a particle collider does not seperate molecules into atoms, but rather atoms into subatomic particles. I don’t know of any ways to specify the assembly of quarks and gluons into anything that we want them to become, no matter the cost. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/18 "2002-04-20T16:15:46Z")
That’s got to be the dumbest UL I’ve ever heard. Did a fourth grade class have a UL writing contest? ---
**Author:** ![heptapod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@heptapod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heptapod)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/19 "2002-04-20T17:17:47Z")
Are you drinking your own urine? Are you splashing it all over your face and rubbing it in your hair? If not, you might as well be flushing it down the toilet. It’s liquid sunshine, people! Fill those oversize pickle jars in your basement and glug it down proper. Load up the ice trays in your workplace freezer. You owe it to your kids, your spouse, certainly yourself. Ancient Chinese secret. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-debunk-this-e-mail-i-just-got/104414/20 "2002-04-20T22:43:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by red\_dragon60 \* > \*\*Sugar is just carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Nothing too dangerous there. \*\* Hydrogen cyanide is just hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen. Nothing too dangerous there, either. :D:D:D