Poisons have a historic relevance in the human history.
From Socrates, Charles VI, the Holy Roman Emperor, right up to Alan Turing,
all died of different types of poisons.
Before we begin, let's clarify what is a poison and what is a venom.
The difference between a poison and venom?
Well, simply, if something bites you and you die, it's a venom,
but if you bite, and you die, it's a poison
When asked to name a poison people may think of cyanide, arsenic, or mercury
but these are not the most toxic substances known.
There are a lot of common things around us that are deadly poisonous
and we are going to break down three types of poisons from the most available one
and to the most toxic substance in the world.
To begin with the most common and yet deadliest poison
which might even be in our backyards is the destroying angel mushroom.
This is the most common toxic mushroom in the world.
There are hundreds of people annually dieing eating exactly this mushroom.
The name speaks for itself.
A couple of hours after consumption the first thing the destroying angel is going to do
is that it destroys your kidneys and liver completely, and symptoms that follow
such as convulsions, excruciating pain in the abdomen and diarrhea.
If kidneys aren't transplanted in time, it will lead to death.
The scariest thing about destroying angel mushroom is that it tricks person into thinking
that he's making recovery, then it destroys the vital organs and kills the person.
In November 2006 Alexander Litvinenko, sat down to eat with two former KGB officers in London.
Litvinenko was a former Russian security officer who publicly opposed the current regime,
worked for the British Secret Service,
and wrote articles accusing Russian president Vladimir Putin of terrorist acts and assasinations.
Soon after the meal Litvinenko felt ill. At first the symptoms resembled food poisoning:
vomiting, upset stomach, and fatigue.
But unlike food poisoning, the symptoms intensified over the following days
and doctors couldn't find any explenation.
Litvinenko's hair fell out, his blood cell count plummeted,
and eventually he couldn't get out of bed and he died three weeks later.
Through an autopsy investigators determined that Litvinenko
was poisoned with 10 micrograms of polonium-210.
10 micrograms basically is half the weight of a single eyelash.
Polonium-210 is a toxic radioactive isotope that occurs as uranium decays into lead.
Polonium-210 has a short life: only 138 days, but in that time it releases a huge amount of energy.
One single gram will heat up to 482 degrees celcius and generate140 Watts of power.
It's used on spacecrafts as a heat and power source.
Polonium-210 is very reactive and has alpha radiation so terribly destructive,
it dissipates all its energy over a very short distance,
which means it can be blocked by closing two pieces of paper, or even skin.
Litvinenko's killers could have easily carried it in a pocket,
probably in a vial of water, and it's been fine.
Once given an avenue past your skin polonium-210 becomes incredibly toxic
and death from radiation poisoning is inevitable.
It doesn't make the greatest weapon for an assassin, though,
because it can be traced in a way that puts even the greatest bloodhound to shame.
Apparently the ex KGB officers weren't aware
that equipment exists to detect it in fantastically small quantities.
Investigators followed the killer's trail from his contaminated aircraft to all three of his hotels
to his rendezvous with Litvinenko and to Litvinenko's teacup.
As soon as Litvinenko drank his poisoned tea, he was doomed.
Once given access past the skin, polonium-210's alpha radiation begins its bombardment of the body
starting with the lining of the stomach and gut, causing severe nausea, pain and internal bleeding.
The earlier these symptoms present themselves, the higher the dosage you received.
If they begin within four hours of the exposure you are in trouble!
Your bone marrow, which directs blood production, is particularly susceptible to radiation.
If those cells are attacked and destroyed, your white and red blood cell count falls
and you become vulnerable to outside infection.
As more bone marrow is destroyed, fewer red blood cells are created.
Eventually the blood becomes so thin you are unable to oxygenate vital organs
the most important of which is your heart.
Once the heart stops receiving enough oxygen it will fail and will cut off all blood flow to the brain.
Polonium-210 has a lethal dose of a single microgram,
which makes it the deadliest radiaoactive material, but it isn't the deadliest substance in the world.
As bad as polonium is, botulism is 500 times more toxic
and this is the most toxic substance that ever existed in the world.
In 2013 the California Department of Public Health received a stool sample
from a baby suffering from botulism.
Babies have an underdeveloped gut and will occasionally develop botulism
when an adult would be able to fan it off.
The test is fairly routine and with an anti botulism serum the survival rate is good.
This time however, the doctors discovered something different and they called it botulism-H
A previously unknown type of botulism that is unfathomably toxic with no known antiserum.
The discovery alarmed the redearchers so much,
They have kept the DNA segments a secret to prevent production and weaponization.
Botulism-H is fatal at two nano grams.
That's two billionth of a gram.
A single red blood cell, which is completely invisible to the naked eye, weighs 10 nanograms.
The deadliest chemical weapon ever created, VX gas, is nasty stuff
but requires a dose of 10 milligrams to kill you. that makes it more than a million times less potent.
Here is how toxic the botulism-H toxin is: if you put it into an eyedropper and squeezed a single drop
into a large swimming pool, drinking a glass of water out of that pool would be fatal.
That same drop properly dispersed could kill a million people.
A cupful could wipe out Europe.
Unlike a virus, botulism-H doesn't grow once it takes up residence in your body.
Another remarkable aspect of the toxin. It starts very small, stays very small,
but still grinds your body's functions to a halt.
Muscles contract as a reaction to a chemical called acetylcholine.
Botulism slides into your muscles' acetylcholine receptors and takes up permanent residence
effectively paralyzing you.
This feature actually has a number of medical uses. A different strand, botulism-A, is used in cosmetics.
An injection of a tiny, tiny amount of it can relax and temporarily paralyze the muscles in your face
and eliminate wrinkles.
Its commercial name is botox.
There is no commercial application for botulism-H.
If you took a drink from that contaminated pool, 12 to 16 hours later your vision would get a little blurry,
your eyelids would droop, and your speech would slur.
Botulism attacks the muscles controlled by your cranial nerves first (your eyes, mouth and throat).
and from there it spreads.
Constipation is next. The muscles that keep your meals moving will be paralyzed.
One of the scarier aspects of botulism poisoning is that it has no effect on your mental state.
As the wave of paralysis passes down your body, you will be completely aware of what is happening.
But neither you, nor your doctors will be able to do anything about it.
It's just like you're trapped in the mines of Moria, and you're going to face Balrog alone.
And unfortunately, you shall not pass :(
It will begin at your head. After your face freezes, your shoulders and arms would follow suit.
The trouble begins once your diaphragm stops working. The muscles in your chest allow your lungs to expand
and fill with air. If they became paralysed, you would struggle more and more just to breathe.
As if a 500-pound man was sitting on your chest.
Eventually you will no longer be able to get enough air just to sustain your brain.
Brain cells need a constant supply of oxygen and start to drop off after only 15 seconds of deprivation.
A few minutes later, the timing depends on the order in which your brain cells died,
you would suffer complete brain death brought on by a dose of poison 5x smaller than a single red blood cell,
which is completely invisible to the naked eye. On the positive side, though
your corpse will be smooth and wrinkle free!
As Paracelsus is reported to have said five hundred years ago:
"All things are poison, and nothing is without poison: the dose alone makes a thing not poison"
And he had a point. Even if you drink 50 gallons of water non-stop, it's gonna kill you
Ultimately we are surrounded by potentially dangerous substances. It's the dose that makes it deadly.
Be safe people! Thanks for watching. If you like this video, please hit the like button and subscribe
(and maybe dance a little)