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Arsenic Poisoning


Like with radium, this is about poisoning, so proceed with caution. It's not quite so gruesome, but as you might know, it used to be a very popular poison. In fact, it was the poison to use.

Please enjoy!

    In Ye Olden Days, anybody who was anybody was using the cool kid trendy poison, arsenic, because it was undetectable and has very general symptoms - more on that later. It's been known to be dangerous since ancient times and is featured in many stories about people trying to kill their relatives. Lovely. Anyway, we enter the Victorian era, and suddenly we have women eating a form of arsenic (white arsenic/arsenic trioxide, the most dangerous kind when they knew it was dangerous) and chalk to whiten their skin.

    In 1858 we have what is known as the Bradford Sweet Poisoning, with 21 deaths as a result of some incompetent people buying and selling white arsenic instead of powdered gypsum (seriously, the dude sold them in the same store and just vaguely waved at the corner that happened to have both) which was used as a filler for candies because sugar was expensive. Over 200 candies were made and they thought the poor poisoned children had cholera. Now the U.K. has laws to prevent things like this, thankfully. More details here: 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning - Wikipedia

    Moving right along, past the infamous Paris Green, past arsenic's uses as pesticides, past the cure for cancer and STDs and all the things that it was thought to be (hey...anyone getting radium vibes? What's with using highly dangerous poisons in medicine?) we now get to why arsenic is so interesting.

    Arsenic behaves like phosphorus when it enters the body, and you know where your body uses phosphorus? Adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, which is your body's energy storage and thus used everywhere inside of you. This is why arsenic is not what I call a "point-and-click" toxin, meaning it doesn't act locally. It's got bigger ambitions than that. It messes with the cells, causing cell death, messing with some important functions. It messes with your energy storage, so you'll probably feel tired, and it also increases your risk of cancer by messing with your DNA and all that fun stuff. Most of the symptoms are gastrointestinal and include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and things like that in the short term, but in the long term, it messes with your skin colour (actually making it darker so have fun Victorian women), can make it thicker, increases risk of heart disease and cancer (like I said before), etc. 

    As with many poisons, what I find the most interesting about arsenic is the fact that it was a wonder drug at one point and how many accidental poisonings there were, far more than just Bradford. If you find this as interesting as I do, check out the Wikipedia article here.


Thanks for reading!

Image credits: thoughtco.com

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