Poison. In an animal or plant, it can be a defense mechanism - and in the hands of a
villain, an untraceable murder tool. But which poison packs the deadliest punch?
Here are the ten deadliest poisons in the world.
#10. Brodifacoum
Rats! If a place has a vermin problem, they probably take action fast to get rid
of the disease-spreading rodents. One of the most effective methods is using pesticides,
which can take out a large colony of rats quickly through poisoned food. And Brodifacoum,
a powerful anticoagulant poison, has become one of the most widely used pesticides in the world.
Not only does it make it difficult from the blood to clot, leading to severe bleeding, but it stays
in the blood for up to nine months. It’s not a surprise it’s a best-seller for exterminators.
But it can target larger animals too.
Brodifacoum is powerful enough that it can take out larger pests like opossums - but humans
aren’t safe either. Any human who ingests it can survive - but only if they’re treated quickly,
with infusions of Vitamin K and possibly blood transfusions. And these treatments
will need to continue until the poison is out of the blood, which can be months - if
it’s caught before heavy bleeding begins. The good news is, it’s not too easy to ingest this!
Most cases involve people accidentally consuming rat poison - or being poisoned
with it. But this potent poison isn’t something humans are likely to come across regularly.
Neither is this next one - but that doesn’t keep people from seeking it out.
#9. Tetrodotoxin
The sushi chef carefully slices the fish. But he’s not just looking to avoid wasting
valuable fish with sloppy cuts - he’s attempting to avoid painful death for
the diner. That’s because he’s slicing pufferfish,
which contains the lethal tetrodotoxin - one of the most powerful neurotoxins in the world.
While the poison is found in other animals like the Blue-Ringed Octopus and Moon Snail,
it’s actually produced by bacteria - and it packs a punch. This sodium-channel blocker
poison basically shuts down the nervous system and keeps muscles from contracting.
And if it affects a human, the odds are grim.
It can enter the bloodstream by being eaten, injected, or absorbed by the skin. It causes
paralysis, trouble breathing, vomiting, seizures, and eventually total respiratory failure.
Death comes within six hours, while the victim is usually completely paralyzed but still conscious.
There is no known antidote, but some people have survived thanks to fast-moving respiratory
aid - keeping them alive until the poison starts wearing off. They usually recover
fully - but the majority of those infected by this deadly neurotoxin never get that chance.
You may be surprised by just how often you eat this next poison…
#8. Cyanide
It’s oddly sweet, almost like a marzipan flavor. You may have tasted it when you bit
into an apricot pit as a child. But don’t get addicted - that harmless-looking fruit pit is
actually packing a deadly punch. It’s loaded with cyanide, a chemical compound that is
poisonous in many forms. It’ll take a lot of eating apricot pits to get poisoned, though,
which is unlikely - except when some health food companies started marketing the pits as a
nutrition-packed food! But most of us consume this chemical regularly with no ill effects.
But that doesn’t mean cyanide will stay harmless.
When processed, cyanide gains a much more powerful toxic kick. Sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide
are two of the deadlier forms, and can affect the heart and central nervous system. And when it’s
turned into a gas, hydrogen cyanide, it can become a deadly aerosol that can incapacitate or kill a
large group of people. Fortunately, an antidote is available, since the compound hydroxocobalamin can
neutralize cyanide and turn it into a compound that the kidneys can eliminate. That’s one of
the perks of a much more common poison - it’s easier to crack the case of how to stop it.
This next poison also comes from an unassuming source.
#7. Strychnine
The Strychnos nux-vomica tree is a nice, mid-sized tree that grows in India and Southeast Asia,
but it has another name - the poison nut tree. That’s because its nuts contain
the deadly poison strychnine, a powerful neurotoxin. It works by shutting down the
nerve fibers in the spinal cord, which makes it impossible for the muscles to contract.
The poison is a defense mechanism for the tree, because it’s only absorbed if the nuts are chewed.
Birds will eat them whole, poop them out, and spread the seeds,
but mammals aren’t likely to - so they’ll rarely eat them more than once.
Strychnine is deadly - but it also has its uses.
It’s highly poisonous, and as such makes an effective pesticide. It’s usually used to wipe
out mid-sized or even large pests like gophers and coyotes. However, using it as rat poison
has fallen out of favor because the potent baits can kill anything that comes across
it - including pets. For humans, it causes muscle spasms, possible kidney failure, seizures,
and respiratory failure in high doses. While there is no specific antidote, the best chance
for recovery is neutralizing it or removing it from the stomach - so get that stomach pump ready.
This next poison is so deadly, it made its way into war.
#6. Ricin
The castor oil plant has many uses, but its seeds pack a powerful punch. They contain ricin,
a carbohydrate-binding protein that’s one of the deadliest in the world.
It can kill easily by being inhaled, injected, or eaten - and can even be absorbed through the eyes
or through minor wounds on the skin. It causes the body to not be able to synthesize protein,
and can cause damage to the gastrointestinal tract. But if it stays in the system long enough,
it can start to affect just about every organ including the central nervous system.
It’s deadly enough that it even attracted the attention of world powers.
World War I was notorious for its use of toxic gas and poison as weapons.
The United States looked into Ricin as one of its agents, considering coating bullets with
it or using it as a dusting weapon. The war ended before it could be weaponized,
but both the US and the USSR wound up keeping weaponized samples in store - that were thankfully
never used. While it was never used in war, it was used to assassinate several dissidents
in Russia and Eastern Europe, and Ricin powder was sent to politicians in the US in letters.
While right now treatment is limited, the US and UK militaries are testing the first Ricin vaccine.
And now we’re getting into the top five - starting with the deadliest man-made toxic.
#5. VX
It looks like engine oil, but this synthetic nerve agent compound is
packing only one thing - killing power. When ICI developed it as an insecticide in the 1950s,
they discovered it worked a little too well. It interferes with the transmission of nerve cells,
and causes muscle contractions and respiratory failure. So volatile and dangerous,
it was eventually taken out of development as a pesticide, but it wouldn’t be long before other
powers realized it could be used for something else - a deadly, hard to stop assassination tool.
And VX became world-famous in 2017.
Kim Jong-Nam was the half-brother of the notorious leader of North Korea, Kim-Jong-Un. He had left
North Korea and was traveling to a resort in Malaysia when he was approached by two women.
They splashed him with a liquid and exposed him to more of the substance with a cloth.
He was taken to a hospital, but died soon after - and an investigation revealed the poison was VX.
As VX is a liquid, the best way to avoid death is through early decontamination
and injection with sedatives, but only standard antidotes for nerve agents are available.
You may be tempted to give the source of this next poison a little pat on the head. Don’t.
#4. Batrachotoxin.
They’re among the most striking creatures in the jungle. Tiny frogs with skin that combines black
with brightly colored patches. But they’re also among the most poisonous creatures in
the world - their skin is coated with a potent neurotoxin named Batrachotoxin. It affects the
peripheral nervous system in a way that blocks nerve signal transmission to the muscles,
causing permanent and fatal paralysis. Not only that, but it has a powerful effect on
heart muscles and leads to cardiac arrest. Even scarier, no antidote is available.
But that doesn’t keep some people from coming close to them.
These frogs are most famous by another name - poison dart frogs. That’s because indigenous
residents have been using them for a long time - very carefully. They scrape off a small layer of
the poisonous skin coating and use it to coat a dart that they then shoot out through a blowgun.
It turns a mildly annoying weapon into a deadly one to deter any invaders. While the poison is
one of the deadliest in the world, some success in treating it has come from an unexpected source -
tetrodotoxin, which is found in puffer fish and can reverse the effect on the nerve membranes.
To find the source of this next toxin, look towards the sea.
#3. Maitotoxin
Algae blooms in the sea can provide a pop of color in the water, but they can also
create some of the most deadly toxins on the planet. The tiny dinoflagellate, a plankton,
creates a compound that has one of the most complicated structures of any toxin.
This makes it a massive challenge for scientists to understand and develop treatments for - which
is a big problem for anyone who encounters this deadly cardiotoxin. It activates extra calcium
channels in the cells, leading to heart failure that is almost invariably fatal.
And it packs a lot of power in a small package.
Testing on this toxin is limited, because it’s so rarely encountered.
But results indicate that less than one nanogram is a fatal dose of Maitotoxin for a mouse.
No one knows the exact dose that will kill a human - but the odds are that any amount encountered in
nature would be enough. So be careful around any colorful patches in the ocean, although
not everything swimming around is vulnerable. Oddly, scientists have observed that certain
fish native to coral reefs are immune to the toxin - and can eat all the plankton they want.
But what is the deadliest toxin around?
#2. Botulinum Toxin
This toxin hides where you least expect it - in your food. In 18th century Germany,
a case of food poisoning linked to sausage led to the discovery of Botulinum toxin
for the first time. Six people died, and it became known as “sausage poisoning”.
Future incidents revealed that it was likely to happen with improperly canned or preserved foods.
A tiny bacteria that can kill an adult human with only a few nanograms,
it’s a neurotoxin that affects muscles and nerves and causes paralysis. While it exists in nature,
it only grows and activates when it’s starved of oxygen - making it deadly in enclosed atmospheres.
But it’s turned out to have some unexpected uses.
During World War II, studies were conducted on weaponizing it,
but it was never released in combat. It would find a second life, though - in medical science! The
toxin is highly effective at causing paralysis, and when processed and neutralized partially,
it can be used to control disorders causing involuntary eye disorders. But this deadly toxin
would have its breakout moment when it became one of the most popular cosmetic treatments - Botox!
Regular injections create localized paralysis in the facial muscles and reduce wrinkles.
But one deadly substance outclasses it all.
In fact, a single drop packs enough deadly power to kill everyone on the planet.
#1. Polonium
Bacteria. Neurotoxins. Plant extracts. All of them pack some deadly toxins, but none
can approach the poison level of one chemical element. Polonium, a heavily radioactive metal,
is one of the rarest elements in the world. It was first identified by the Curies in 1898
and it has one key characteristic - it is extremely radioactive. And with radioactivity
comes toxicity to humans. While it has some scientific applications, it is so potent that
any use of it is extremely risky, because it takes very little to cause fatal radiation poisoning.
How little, exactly?
Estimates are that as little as seven trillionths of a gram of polonium can kill any adult - and
a whole gram might be able to kill an entire country. Because it’s both toxic and radioactive,
there is no effective treatment or antidote and exposure is invariably fatal - as former FSB
agent Alexander Livinenko found out the hard way when he was poisoned in London by Russian
agents. The good news is, you’re not likely to come across it in your everyday life - it can
be produced from uranium, but it would take tons of uranium to produce a single dose of polonium.
A procedure to irradiate bismuth with neutrons has also been shown to produce polonium,
but it remains one of the trickiest elements to produce. And the only people with access
are nuclear-powered nations. Let’s hope they use that power responsibly.
For more on one of the most notorious poisons, watch “How Does Cyanide Poisoning Actually Work”,
or watch this video instead.