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Toxicologist Answers Poison Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED - YouTube
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- If you've been bitten
by a brown recluse spider,
[3]
the first thing I can
tell you, keep the spider.
[7]
Hi, I'm Anne Chappelle.
[8]
I'm a board certified toxicologist,
[11]
and this is Poison Support.
[13]
[gentle music]
[17]
Jehovah's witness,
Jehovah's Thickness asks,
[20]
so can you really poison
people by putting eye drops
[23]
in their food?
[24]
I'm asking for a friend.
[27]
Actually you can.
[28]
There have been several high
profile cases where a spouse
[32]
has been accused of murder
for putting Visine drops
[36]
into their partner's beverages and food.
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The active ingredient in Visine
[41]
causes your blood vessels to constrict.
[44]
It works great on your
eyes getting the red out.
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The problem is that when you ingest it
[49]
and you ingest enough of it,
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it can cause your other blood
vessels to also constrict.
[54]
And when those constrict
you can cut off blood supply
[57]
to different parts of your body
[58]
and have some overt toxicity.
[61]
It's been shown that
only a quarter teaspoon
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ingested by a child can actually
cause significant toxicity.
[68]
So you need to be very careful
in where you keep your Visine
[72]
or other similar eyedrops.
[74]
Next up, we have a question
from Benjamin Sano.
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Poison gas, how does that work?
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Well, first you go to Taco Bell.
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Just kidding.
[83]
Certain poison gases
when you breathe them in,
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they immediately destroy
the lining of your lung.
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And so if you don't
have a good lung lining,
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well then you really
can't oxygenate your blood
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and then you can die.
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Poison gases can also work
by interacting with the cells
[100]
within your body and
stop them from being able
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to produce energy.
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That's a really big deal when it comes to
[107]
your heart and your brain.
[109]
One of the most common poisonous gases
[111]
is actually carbon monoxide.
[113]
Carbon monoxide poisoning
often manifests as sleepiness,
[117]
and unfortunately carbon
monoxide is tasteless, odorless.
[122]
And so you often won't be able to tell
[124]
if you've been exposed to carbon monoxide.
[126]
That's why those carbon monoxide
detectors that you can get
[129]
at your local big box
store are so important.
[131]
From Tatum Flynn.
[134]
Can you get lead poisoning
from stabbing yourself really
[137]
hard with a sharp pencil?
[139]
Asking for an idiot.
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No, no you can't.
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No way.
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Never, no how.
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You know why?
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Pencils don't contain lead.
[148]
Pencils actually contain a
mix of graphite and clay,
[152]
which is considered non-toxic.
[154]
We have a question now
from Brendon FlyEaglesFly.
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Did you know that toothpaste can kill you
[160]
because it's a poison if you
eat the whole bottle at once?
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It even says use more
for brushing than eating.
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Yes.
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Why yes I did.
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Fluoride when brushed on the
teeth helps protect the enamel.
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And so it's very good for
your teeth, but again,
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it's not very good to ingest
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because the fluoride
is a lot like calcium.
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So if you have too much
fluoride in your body,
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it displaces the calcium.
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Why is that important?
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Calcium is in your bones.
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So your bones aren't as strong
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as well as calcium is important
in a number of different
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metabolic reactions that
keep your body healthy.
[195]
If you did eat an entire
thing of toothpaste,
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that's something you really should call
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poison control about.
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That fluoride in your body could
escalate to the point where
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you have seizures, convulsions, death.
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So please take it seriously.
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Don't eat your toothpaste.
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Please spit.
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We have a question from Emily.
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Can you die of food poisoning?
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Absolutely you can die of food poisoning.
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Food poisoning is actually one
of the most common poisonings
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that happens in the United States.
[226]
According to the Centers
for Disease Control
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one in six Americans suffer from some form
[232]
of food poisoning every year,
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128,000 Americans end
up going to the hospital
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for food poisoning.
[240]
And about 3,000 people die
every year of food poisoning.
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The biggest problem with food
poisoning is dehydration.
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If you have several days of diarrhea,
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you really need to make
sure that you stay hydrated.
[255]
Sometimes food poisoning can
be very difficult to diagnose
[259]
because you end up getting a
delay between when you actually
[263]
ate the food and actually
when you became ill.
[266]
Usually it is a delay of six
to 12 hours for that toxin
[272]
to start acting on your intestines
[274]
and in your body to produce
adverse health effects.
[277]
Wife of Chadwick asks can
you overdose on vitamins?
[282]
Because those gummies are
yummy and I keep popping them.
[285]
Yes, you can.
[286]
However, there is not
always an adverse effect.
[289]
Many of the gummy vitamins
are water-soluble vitamins,
[293]
which means that they don't
get built up in your system.
[296]
So if you've ever taken too
many gummies or vitamins
[298]
and you've got kind of
bright colored pee well,
[302]
you've overdosed just a bit.
[304]
The problem is when you end up overdosing
[307]
on some of these fat-soluble vitamins,
[309]
such as vitamin D, vitamin
E, some of the Bs as well.
[313]
Those like to sequester into your fat.
[316]
And so they're harder to
get rid of out of your body.
[319]
Iron supplements can be also
formulated into gummy vitamins.
[323]
And those are actually very dangerous,
[325]
especially for children
to have an iron overdose.
[328]
And so in all of these cases
if you suspect that there is
[332]
unintended ingestion of
these kinds of vitamins,
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it's important to run it by
your poison control center,
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especially if it's a child.
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So this one is from David Acosta.
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Yo, I never had to call
poison control at this point
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in my life.
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How does it work?
[350]
Is there like a code system,
press one for rat poison,
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press two for cyanide?
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Do I need a subscription?
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Is there a free trial?
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You know what, nevermind.
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Well, it's really important that you know
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that the first step in suspected poisoning
[364]
is actually calling poison control.
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That's 1-800-222-1222.
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It's a national toll
free number staffed 24/7.
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Now you may think that
there are some times
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when you need to call 911, or
should I call poison control?
[380]
Well, if the person is having
an extreme medical emergency
[383]
right in front of you dial 911.
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If you're not sure, still call 911,
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especially if they're a child
[390]
and then call poison control to follow up.
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Leonel asks a very important question.
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Wait, wait, wait, how do
poison antidotes work?
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So there's a number of
different kinds of antidotes.
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First of all there's the
kind that actually just trap
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or absorb the chemical.
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There are some that actually go after
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and neutralize the chemical itself.
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Those are things like the antivenoms.
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Another one is that it
actually inhibits the chemical
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at the site of the organ or toxicity.
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Here's a good example of an antidote
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for a chemical overdose, opiates.
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You get too much oxycodone in your body
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and they give you the Naloxone spray.
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That actually gets into your body
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and that displaces the
oxycodone from the sites
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where it activates.
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That's why you see such
an immediate reversal
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after a Naloxone dose.
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Poison control and regional
trauma centers often have
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antivenoms for the things that are local
[450]
to that particular area.
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But if you happen to
be in Northern Ontario,
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where there are no rattlesnakes,
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there's probably no antivenom.
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So be careful where you decide to get bit.
[461]
Ivves asks, how do we measure toxicity?
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One of the most common
ways to measure toxicity
[467]
is a test called an LD50
test, lethal dose 50.
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It means you give a dose to an
animal and you find out what
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the dose is that kills
50% of those animals.
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I know that sounds pretty barbaric,
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but it is a way to analyze and
figure out what the inherent
[485]
toxicity of that substance happens to be.
[489]
OneRaisedBrow asks did you
know that activated charcoal
[493]
can absorb poison?
[495]
It's actually been used for
hundreds and hundreds of years
[498]
to absorb different toxicants.
[501]
Activated charcoal works by
actually physically binding
[505]
that substance to itself
in the digestive tract
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and traps it so that it is eliminated
[512]
through either the feces
or if it is flushed out
[516]
of the stomach.
[518]
One of the things they like
about activated charcoal is that
[521]
it acts on all kinds of
different poisons and toxicants.
[524]
So you don't necessarily
have to know what the person
[527]
was exposed to to be able to
use it and potentially help
[530]
eliminate any of these adverse reactions.
[533]
If you've already got
something in your body,
[534]
activated charcoal isn't
gonna pull that toxicant out
[537]
of your cells and out of your body.
[539]
The activated charcoal is
really gonna focus on something
[541]
that is in your intestinal
tract, your GI tract,
[545]
but it's really not meant
to cleanse any other part
[548]
of your body.
[549]
Angwin, anyone know what
to do if you feel like
[553]
you've been poisoned 24/7?
[555]
Go to the doctor.
[557]
If you feel awful for several
days or several weeks,
[560]
keep a diary of some of your symptoms.
[563]
What have you been eating?
[564]
Where have you been going?
[565]
What is your work environment like?
[567]
That way you're able to give the doctor
[569]
or nurse practitioner something to go on.
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Here's a question from Kerry Syndram.
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If you ever accidentally swallow a poison,
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don't make yourself throw up,
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drink as much water or milk as you can.
[580]
I just saved your life.
[581]
Not necessarily Kerry.
[584]
Chemical agents have different
hazardous properties.
[587]
For example, bleach is
a very caustic agent,
[592]
which means it can burn you.
[594]
If you drank milk or water,
[596]
you would think that that might
dilute what you're having,
[598]
but not necessarily.
[600]
Sometimes the water or the
milk can make it worse.
[603]
In addition, if that makes you feel worse
[606]
and you accidentally throw up,
[608]
there's a condition called
aspiration pneumonitis,
[611]
which is essentially
you inhale your vomit.
[614]
Imagine how much worse it
is if you inhaled vomit
[618]
that was full of bleach,
[619]
that would also damage your lungs.
[621]
So don't just assume that water
or milk is the appropriate
[624]
treatment for an overdose or
exposure to any kind of poison.
[629]
Shoulda Retired says
hey toxicology Twitter,
[633]
@ScreamingMD, @RyanMarino,
[635]
what's the Dapsone dose
for a brown recluse bite?
[638]
A brown recluse spider is a
kind of spider that causes
[642]
in some cases a necrotizing wound.
[646]
That means all of the
skin cells are dying.
[649]
If you've been bitten by
a brown recluse spider,
[652]
the first thing I can
tell you keep the spider.
[656]
Even if you smash it, put it
into a little jar so that if
[660]
you get some kind of necrotizing wound,
[664]
it's like a gross pussy painful spot,
[668]
you can tell the doctor so that they can
[670]
treat you appropriately.
[672]
The question was for this
one is Dapsone treatment.
[675]
Dapsone is an antibiotic often
given to leprosy patients.
[680]
So you might think is
that really appropriate
[682]
for a brown recluse spider bite?
[684]
There's a number of research
papers that have compared
[687]
treatment for brown recluse spider bites,
[690]
between the different standard of care,
[692]
the antibiotics and such
with adding Dapsone.
[696]
And the evidence is mixed.
[697]
I have a question here from Anna7,
[700]
what the [bleep] is syrup of ipecac?
[703]
Syrup of ipecac is a
syrup that is made from
[708]
the dried root of a South American plant.
[712]
It is used in the emergency
room to make you vomit.
[717]
That's what it does.
[719]
If you're going to use syrup of ipecac,
[720]
you really should call
poison control first
[723]
to make sure that you
should be up chucking
[726]
what you ingested.
[728]
Because sometimes if things
are really caustic, corrosive,
[732]
things like battery acid, Draino, bleach,
[737]
that can cause more
damage on the way back up.
[740]
The problem with syrup of
ipecac also is that it has been
[744]
abused for many years by people
that didn't know how to make
[748]
themselves throw up, but
they wanted to lose weight.
[751]
One of the most famous deaths
related to syrup of ipecac
[755]
was actually Karen Carpenter in 1983.
[759]
She had severe anorexia and
kept taking syrup of ipecac
[764]
to make her vomit.
[765]
Over time syrup of
ipecac damaged her heart.
[768]
So it caused her to have
a heart attack and die.
[772]
A question from Andrew King.
[774]
Poinsettia cupcakes but no Yule logs,
[777]
wait aren't poinsettias poisonous?
[780]
That is actually a bit of a myth.
[781]
If you eat a significant
number of poinsettia leaves,
[784]
you might become a little nauseous
[787]
or you might be able to reach
a potentially toxic dose.
[790]
A child weighing 50 pounds has
to eat 500 poinsettia leaves
[795]
to actually reach a dose that would result
[798]
in significant toxicity.
[800]
Zoe is just kitten around.
[801]
I want to at the very
least learn how to tell
[804]
a poison mushroom apart
from an edible one.
[807]
Here is a really easy
way to tell them apart.
[810]
If it's at a grocery
store, you can eat it.
[813]
You need to be very careful about foraging
[815]
for your own mushrooms,
[816]
because it is very difficult
to tell a poisonous mushroom
[819]
apart from an edible mushroom.
[821]
Because there's only about
100 poisonous mushrooms out of
[825]
all the mushrooms that are out there
[827]
what are the chances
that you actually picked
[829]
a poisonous one?
[831]
Do you really want to find out?
[832]
Every year there are about
6,000 mushroom poisonings
[836]
reported to the CDC.
[838]
Half of those are from
ingestions from children.
[842]
So please help educate your children
[844]
not eat random mushrooms in your backyard.
[848]
Alright, that's all the questions.
[849]
I had a really good time today
[851]
and I hope we can do it again sometime.
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