By John Timbrell
On a daily basis we're surrounded by means of chemical compounds which are in all likelihood damaging. a few of these we take deliberately within the kind of medications; a few we take unknowingly during the meals we consume, and the surroundings round us. John Timbrell explores what makes specific chemical compounds destructive, what their results are, and the way we will try out for them. He examines medicines corresponding to Paracetamol and what it does to the physique; Ricin, the main poisonous substance recognized to guy; Paraquat, a commonly to be had weedkiller; and the way the puffer fish, eaten as a delicacy in Japan, can kill. utilizing case stories from all over the international, resembling the Spanish Oil syndrome which remodeled 20,000 humans sick in Madrid, Timbrell uncovers the evidence at the back of chemical scares. He exhibits how, with a rational, medical, and balanced method, hazards will be assessed and controlled effectively.
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Additional resources for The Poison Paradox: Chemicals As Friends and Foes
Example text
Noxious chemicals, again provided the amount does not exhaust the available protective agent. Thus there is a very clear underlying principle as to why the dose of a chemical is so important. It underlies what Paracelsus concluded in the sixteenth century: ‘All substances are poisons; there is none that is not a poison. ’ The body can protect itself against small doses of a chemical, and these small doses may even be beneficial, but a large dose overwhelms the available natural resources and causes toxic, adverse effects.
This probably refers to the effects of early exposure to bacteria and other foreign particles, which are all around us in the environment, on the immune system. It has been suggested that early exposure of the immune system to foreign agents such as bacteria helps to protect young children when they are older and are exposed to infectious diseases. There is growing evidence that this concept may have more widespread relevance in that low levels of chemicals may be not only harmless but positively beneficial.
However, one type is particularly important. This is the free radical, and the important feature of these is that on reacting with another chemical another free radical is produced, a so-called chain reaction. This leads especially to the destruction of fats and the membranes of which they form part. In the presence of oxygen this causes a destructive process call lipid peroxidation. A similar process causes butter to go rancid. Sometimes highly reactive and toxic forms of oxygen such as superoxide radical and hydroxyl radical, known as reactive oxygen species, are also produced.
