Questions tagged [toxicology]
The study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms.
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Is the fruit of Ficus Benjamina (Weeping Fig) poisonous? [closed]
Ficus Benjamina (Weeping Fig) is a popular house plant. The leaves and sap are generally considered toxic. However, I found conflicting information about the fruit.
Some sources claim the fruit is not ...
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Does mixing watermelons with alcohol cause liver damage?
Recently there's been an influx of articles in Polish media warning against consuming alcohol and watermelons (titles via Google Translate):
Never combine with alcohol. You can damage your liver
...
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Was there a pattern of women in Middle Ages Europe poisoning their husbands to keep them close?
There's a claim doing the rounds on social media, that women in the Middle Ages would poison their husbands, and then administer an antidote on their arrival home. The implication is that this would &...
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Is canthaxanthin used in salmon farming toxic to human health?
Founder of Sea Shepherd and co-founder of Greenpeace, "Captain" Paul Watson (captain in what, I don't know) stated that
Farmed Salmon is Poison
70% of salmon produced worldwide is farmed,
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Can defrosting vacuum-packed fish in its packaging cause botulism?
There are many warnings on the Internet about vacuum-sealed frozen fish thawed in its packaging potentially causing botulism:
Why You Should Never Thaw Frozen Fish in Its Vacuum-Sealed Packaging
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Can regularly ingesting a poison build an immunity to it? [duplicate]
There is an ancient story of Mithridates of Pontus cultivating an immunity to poisons by regularly ingesting sub-lethal doses. (e.g. here, or here).
This strikes me as being extremely unlikely for ...
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On the impact of (non ionising, non visible) EMF radiation on the human body: should we be worried about widespread 5G implementation? [duplicate]
I decided to do some research on the topic and found these two articles listed on google scholar (i have the PDFs, and can share them if you tell me how to!).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/...
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Do dolphins intentionally intoxicate themselves with puffer-fish venom?
Since late 2013, outlets as serious as Smithsonian Magazine have circulated the claim that dolphins intentionally get "high" by harassing pufferfish. It is further claimed that this is a ...
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Are spiders unable to hurt humans, especially very small spiders?
In an episode of Peppa Pig, one of the characters says that spiders are very very small, and that they can’t hurt you.
Broadcasters in Australia have avoided broadcasting the episode involved, ...
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Is the European NO₂ limit of 40 µg/m³ for outside air backed by strong evidence?
According to the Umwelt Bundesamt, the average annual limit for the NO₂ concentration is set to 40 µg/m³ with the intention to protect people with asthma, small children and older people, especially ...
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Did a prisoner die from a needle prick when he was told that it was a snake bite?
I read somewhere that there was a prisoner facing a death sentence sometime before the 1950s, on whom a psychological experiment was conducted.
Experiment:
He was blindfolded and told that he would be ...
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Are polyfluorinated chemicals linked to men's penises being smaller?
A recent story in Huffpost raises the spectre that cooking in non-stick pans could be harming male fertility, not least by making penises smaller:
Chemicals used to make non-stick pans have been ...
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Can you become immune to Snake Venom?
Is it true that long term regular exposure to snake venom will make you immune to venom from an attack from a snake? (Also see this Reddit Link)
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Can venomous snakes be determined by these pupil, nostril and scale patterns?
This image was recently shared by an Australian Facebook friend:
The source appears to be a Facebook post of a man from India with a staggering 380,000 shares from around the world!
There are ...
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Do the seeds from 20 apples contain a fatal dose of cyanide?
This Healthline article claims:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1-2 mg/kg is a fatal oral dose of cyanide for a 154 lbs. (70 kg) man. You would need to finely chew and ...
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Are Common House Geckos poisonous?
The Common House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) is a South-East Asian lizard.
In some parts of India, there are various beliefs about the them, or their urine, being toxic to eat. Wikipedia describes ...
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Does eating burnt toast neutralize ingested poison?
A doctor told me today that eating burnt toast along with tea is a remedy for poison. Apparently the burnt part of the toast acts like activated charcoal and adsorbs the poison you've ingested, and ...
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What known toxin(s) would fit the scenario of the alleged/reported Kim Jong-Nam poisoning? [closed]
According to the news reports:
Substance administered to the face (presumed inhaled or swallowed)
Small dose (apparently)
Lethal within a couple of hours
No reports of any effect on assailant or ...
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Is honey toxic when heated up in tea?
Last night, we ran out of sugar so I suggested to add honey in tea but my cousin said it would have very harmful effect on health and then he showed me these link1, link2 claiming:
While warm water ...
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Is drinking water stored in copper vessels (copperware) good for your health?
It's a wide spread belief in India (Ayurveda) that drinking water stored in copper ware (like copper jugs and pots) is better for health.
There's even a website about it: Dr. Copper's "Scientifically ...
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Does Asclepias gigantea cause blindness?
It is a widespread bilief that Asclepias gigantea or the "Arka" or "Jilledu" tree is poisonous and causes blindness.
The general belief is that
If the milk of the plant falls into the eye, you go ...
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Does a pear contain 600 times more formaldehyde than a vaccine?
There is a common pro-vaccination argument that attempts to equate the amount of formaldehyde injected into the body when receiving a vaccine, with the amount of formaldehyde ingested into the GI ...
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Can bee stings be treated with onions?
Someone told me that when you have a bee sting you should cut an onion in half and apply it to the sting for 30min - or even better make onion puree and apply it.
This sounds a bit like folk-medicine ...
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Was poisonous gas used during the Sep 2015 Mecca stampede?
This post from AWDNews is doing the rounds on Facebook:
Saudi forces deliberately used poisonous gas during the Mecca stampede, says a Saudi expert
Mr. Hani al-Shoukri , an astute Middle-East expert ...
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Is very young lamb poisonous?
I spotted an article on BBC news (repeated on several other news aggregators) about a farmer who had had his lambs stolen.
There was a very specific warning given:
PSNI Chief Inspector Graham ...
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Would eating a packet of cigarettes be fatal?
World Education, a group that promote literacy, have a resource for understanding the risks of tobacco, which claims:
Chemicals in cigarettes and cigarette smoke are known to cause not only cancer ...
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Has anyone died from eating fruit pits that contain amygdalin (cyanide)? [duplicate]
It's often noted that fruit pits, the hardened seeds inside peaches, cherries, and plums, contain amygdalin, which breaks down into cyanide in the body. It is also often noted that apple seeds and ...
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Are sprouted sweet potatoes safe to eat?
Here it's implied that sprouted sweet potatoes are edible because they are not from the same family as potatoes (it's like saying arsenic is fine to eat because it's not from the same family as lead)
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Does coriander juice help in chelation and excretion of toxic metals?
Many articles claim that coriander juice (a.k.a. cilantro) has chelation properties and help in excrement of toxic metals.
For example: Raw Food Hypocrite:
A recent study by Dr. Yoshiaki Omura ...
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Can a wasp ingest and use a snake's venom?
Some people claim that if one comes across a dead venomous snake one should always cut of and bury the head as otherwise wasps could reach the venom and add it to their own stinger, for example this ...
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Are chicken haunches especially toxic?
There have been some health concerns raised (mainly through word of mouth) with regards to the toxicity of chicken haunches.
Apparently, in the industrial breeding and rearing of chickens many ...
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Do onions become toxic or otherwise dangerous within a day of a being cut open?
I saw a new "health advice" meme on Facebook today:
Please remember it is dangerous to cut an onion and try to use it to cook the next day, it becomes highly poisonous for even a single night and ...
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Is the Japanese emperor forbidden from eating fugu (puffer fish)?
According to Wikipedia
Fugu is also the only food the Emperor of Japan is forbidden to eat, for his safety
This information comes from a Forbes article "Killer Foods":
The fish remains ...
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Has any person ever died from a tarantula bite?
From Wikipedia:Tarantula:
[N]o fatalities have been attributed to tarantula bites...
From Nationalgeographic.com:
According to researchers, there's never been a single confirmed human death ...
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Did Ralph Nader say that a pound of plutonium could cause 8 billion cancers?
According to "The Myth of Plutonium Toxicity" by Bernard L. Cohen:
Plutonium is constantly referred to by the news media as ``the most
toxic substance known to man.'' Ralph Nader has said that a ...
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Is wheat the cause of numerous, serious health problems?
This morning, I stumbled across a realfarmacy article which poses the question [Note: the linked page breaks in Chrome but worked in Firefox]:
Why is there such a strong emphasis on the development ...
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How many almonds does it take to get cyanide poisoning?
I was at lunch today and the conversation turned to almonds and their cyanide content. One co-worker said almonds contain a lot of cyancide and the number of almonds that can kill you surprisingly low....
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Does anyone know what cyanide tastes like?
There is a story about a scientist who wanted to know what Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN, Prussic Acid) tasted like, but couldn't because he died before he could write it out.
But it requires at least 25-30 ...
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Are laundry detergent and fabric softener fumes dangerous to human health?
One of my neighbors raised the topic of toxins in the dryer effluence from our buildings' laundry rooms. That's not particularly surprising, but she claimed there was evidence that the trace toxins ...
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Is bamboo charcoal safely edible?
Bamboo charcoal is made up of pieces of bamboo, which are taken from plants five years or older and burned inside an oven at temperatures over 1000°C.
Bamboo charcoal is well known about its high ...
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Are baby snakes as venomous as adult ones?
I'm in a locality where I can find snakes walking around with ease. Its probable that I will also find the snake's baby (sized 4-5 inches).
Whenever we encounter any such child some people at ...
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When washing-up, is it unhealthy to omit the rinsing stage?
Some people do their dishes and leave the suds on, letting it air-dry, or using a towel. Some rinse it off.
I cannot understand the British habit of washing and rinsing dishes in the same dirty ...
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Are sucralose ("Splenda") and all other chlorinated hydrocarbons toxic? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Long term effects of sucralose
Is it true that sucralose is the only chlorinated hydrocarbon we eat and that chlorinated hydrocarbons are inherently toxic? (I realize the ...
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Do reusable plastic water bottles leach dangerous chemicals? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is refilling water bottles bad for you?
Several articles claim that the 'chemical leaching' from reusable clear plastic water bottles leads to toxins in the water, not even ...
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Can Tifton 85 grass produce cyanide gas?
Today I read something quite unexpected:
Preliminary tests revealed the Tifton 85 grass, which has been here for years, had suddenly started producing cyanide gas, poisoning the cattle.
[...]
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Do vaccines cause "hypertoxicity"?
A friend recently posted this on their Facebook:
Vaccines don't cause autism. They cause hypertoxicity which leads to neurological impairment, and cell death. DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! ~Dr. D....
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Could cutting one's self on a broken CFL bulb cause severe injury?
Related: How dangerous is a broken compact fluorescent lamp (CFL)?
Actually someone asked this exact thing on that question, but it wasn't addressed, perhaps because they provided no link/further ...
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Is the smoke from one mosquito coil equal to that of 100 cigarettes?
This article makes the following assertion.
Smoke emitted from one mosquito repellant coil is equivalent to those of 100 cigarettes, thus causing harm to a large number of people in India...
Is ...
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Are synthetically produced chemicals not found in nature more likely to be harmful than naturally occurring ones?
Since everything is made from chemicals the often made claim that we should avoid food that doesn't contain chemicals doesn't make any sense. But the underlying idea that synthetic chemicals are ...
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Are dioxins the most toxic chemicals known to science?
Dioxins are implicated in The Seveso disaster in Italy and the lingering disputes about deformities and birth defects caused by the use of the Agent Orange defoliant in the Vietnam war (Wikipedia ...
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