Welcome to Top10Archive!
A toxic substance is anything that may physically harm you after it's been inhaled, swallowed
or touched.
From a frog's deadly defensive secretion to chemicals created by man, we're counting down
10 of the deadliest substances known to man.
10.
Carbon monoxide Scentless and without color, carbon monoxide
gas often times goes unnoticed with deadly consequences.
Since it's so hard to detect, it's best to know the symptoms: headache, fatigue, nausea,
dizziness and shortness of breath.
This poisonous gas is the product of burning different fuels, such as wood, charcoals,
oils and natural gas.
Lethal poisoning is so common from carbon monoxide, that over 170 people die each year
from carbon monoxide poisoning from non-automotive means in the United States alone.
9.
Sodium cyanide A commonly used industrial reactant, widely
used for mining gold, sodium cyanide can kill within seconds - obviously depending on the
dosage.
With just 1/20th of a teaspoon being enough to hit LD50 levels, it's safe to say that
if you smell almonds while working with hydrogen cyanide and/or sodium hydroxide...
get yourself away from the area as soon as possible.
This chemical is extremely toxic to humans, and runs risk through both skin absorption
and ingestion.
8.
Batrachotoxin Many animals utilize toxins as defensive measures,
and frogs are by no means a stranger to that.
There is one frog in particular, though, the golden poison frog, or Phyllobates terribilis,
that you should especially take caution with.
Native to western Colombia, this frog secretes a neurotoxin called batrachotoxin and just
one hundred-millionths of a gram is the lethal dosage for an average human male.
Just for an idea as to how little that is, it'd be roughly the size of two grains of
sugar.
7.
Strychnine Obtained from the seeds of a Nux vomica tree
and other related plants, strychnine is a relatively common poison and an easily identifiable
one as well - as it kills by means of asphyxiation.
This is done by paralyzing the muscles that control the airway, though that comes after
the severe muscle pains around the neck, abdomen and jaw with severe convulsions afterward.
Symptoms usually manifest fifteen to twenty minutes after exposure and poisoning can occur
through inhalation or absorption through any orifice.
6.
Mercury Commonly called quicksilver, the chemical
element known as mercury is considered to be toxic and deadly, as we all learned from
Terminator 2.
Really though, it's commonly used and can be found in thermometers, fluorescent lamps
and many other things that end in "ometer." Mercury is easily absorbed through the skin
as well as inhaled in vapor form with the most toxic forms being organic compounds.
Mercury is capable of causing both acute and chronic poisoning.
Every type of Mercury except elemental liquid mercury produce toxicity or death with less
than a gram. 5.
Chlorine Trifluoride Ever want to just set fire to… everything?
Glass, brick, asbestos, sand – it’s all a possibility with the interhalogen compound
chlorine trifluoride.
During World War II, the chemical, under the name Substance-N, was meant to be a major
component of the German offensive, but production of the volatile chemical was halted by the
Soviets before it could be implemented.
The secret to trifluoride's destructive success is in its oxidizing properties, which far
exceed even oxygen.
Beyond setting the world on fire, the chemical is impressively corrosive, affecting otherwise
unreactive elements like osmium, iridium, and titanium.
4.
Cyanide Known to be one of the quickest-acting poisons
known to man, able to kill within minutes, Cyanide is almost synonymous with poison to
today's culture.
Considered to be a rare form of poisoning, however, many become exposed to it due to
residential and industrial fires.
HCN, otherwise known as hydrogen cyanide gas, is so deadly it has been used as chemical
weaponry, used particularly in enclosed areas where high concentration levels can be easily
achieved.
The gas, in short, prevents your body's cells from using oxygen, essentially suffocating
your heart and brain.
3.
Tabun An incredibly toxic chemical with a slightly
sweet smell, Tabun is classified as a nerve agent due to the way in which it fatally interferes
with the proper functioning of the mammalian nervous system.
This man-made chemical was originally manufactured as a pesticide from Germany, and has since
been used as a chemical weapon in warfare.
Tabun can be absorbed into your body via ingestion, contact with your eyes, skin or inhalation.
Luckily, this chemical is not very commonplace, as it is illegal just about everywhere to
manufacture and stockpile Tabun in any manner.
2.
Ricin The deadly poison Walter White uses to off
one of his rival's in AMC's Breaking Bad and one that is known to be one of the most poisonous
natural substances that we know, is Ricin.
Ricin comes from the castor bean plant's seed which is native to and mainly found in Africa.
As little as one seed is all it takes to kill a child, and a mere one milligram of Ricin
is enough to kill an adult.
Symptoms of Rican poisoning begin within hours of ingestion and include abdominal pain, vomiting,
diarrhea and often times death.
1.
Botox According to a report from newscientist.com,
scientists have discovered what is considered to be the deadliest substance known - a strain
of botulinum toxin, or Botox.
What makes it so deadly is that there isn't a known antidote and the genetic makeup of
the strain is withheld from public data.
Ingesting as little as 2 billionths of a gram, or the inhalation of 13 billionths of a gram
is enough to kill a human, while just one gram is enough to kill 14,000 people if ingested,
or roughly 8.3 million people if injected!