the.com/toxicology
the only science where the difference between medicine and murder is a decimal point
means The scientific study of poisons — how toxic substances affect living things, at what doses they harm, and how to detect, prevent, or treat that harm.
from From Greek 'toxikon,' poison — but the word hides an archer. 'Toxikon' was short for 'toxikon pharmakon,' the 'poison for the bow,' from 'toxon,' a bow. So the venom smeared on arrowheads gave its name to the entire study of poisons, joined to '-logia,' the study of. Toxicology is, quite literally, the science of what's on the arrow.
- founding rule
- the dose makes the poison, said Paracelsus 500 years ago
- water kills
- drinking too much water can be fatal
- arsenic trade
- Victorians called it inheritance powder for good reason
- botox truth
- the wrinkle cure is the deadliest toxin known
- forensic root
- first murder conviction by chemistry came in 1840
minamata disease — mercury poisoning from factory waste in japan that killed over 2,000 people starting in 1956
bhopal disaster — methyl isocyanate gas leak in india in 1984 that killed approximately 15,000 people
lead water crisis flint — contaminated drinking water in flint, michigan discovered in 2015 affecting 100,000+ residents
thalidomide birth defects — morning sickness drug in the 1950s-60s that caused severe limb malformations in approximately 10,000 children worldwide