We all know what poison is right? Poison is a deadly substance that when digested can have serious effects and harms on the human body, usually resulting in death.

We usually know what poison is from what we’ve read in books. Which is actually something I want to talk about really quickly.

Poison is used so much in books and we can see that, but that’s because it’s the most discreet way of killing. No noise, no blood, and there’s hardly ever any evidence to chase it back to the murderer. But not only that, poison can also do different things, which is what I’m going to be talking about in this article today.

We obviously have our basic poisons:

Alcohol.
Hazardous Chemicals.
Household Products.
Inhalants.

And things such as washing up powder and dishwasher tablets. 

This type of poisoning can cause short-term effects, like a skin rash or brief illness. In serious cases, it can cause brain damage, a coma, or death, but that’s very unlikely.

If you happen to get poisoned by one of these things, depending on the seriosity of the poisoning, either call 111 or 999. But I’m sure you already knew that.

You can also be poisoned by animals. In fact some of the deadliest poisons come from animals such as frogs, snakes or spiders.

A really deadly poison is actually found in puffer fish. It’s called Tetrodotoxin. It’s an extremely powerful neurotoxin. It stops nerve conduction between the body and the brain. It does this by blocking sodium channels. It can end in death.

In Japan, one of the ingredients in the dish fugu is actually puffer fish. But like chicken, if prepared properly then it won’t cause any harm. But usually, it kills around seven dozen people in Japan every year.

One of the deadliest poisons is cyanide. 

Cyanide is probably one of the most well known poisons. And it’s well known for being
dangerous and lethal. 

It doesn’t take a lot for cyanide to kill groups of people. It stops oxygen from entering someone's body. Cyanide affects the heart and the brain mostly because they need oxygen more than any other organ. Cyanide has been used for things like mass genocide. For example, the Nazis in world war two.

But the most deadly poison is Polonium. Once consumed, the poison makes its way through your body, collecting any electrons from any molecules it crosses, leaving behind tons of reactive radicals. It causes terrible damage to your DNA and it’s known as Cell suicide. 

Polonium - a radioactive chemical element -  was discovered in 1898 by Madam Curie. 

It’s so dangerous that one gram of it could kill 50 million people and make another 50 million people ill. 

If you touch it, it won’t do any damage, but if ingested it will kill you.