biological poisons

Hello, today I am here to write my final blog of this toxicology class. At first I just wanted to say thank you for teaching an amazing class. I picked the class because yes, it was a part of my major but toxicology also sounded really interesting. I found out that it was. I loved learning about all types of toxic things. I loved how you encouraged the class to participate and it was not just a boring lecture. You made me want to come to class every day. Anyway, back to the blog. This is the final blog and this is about biological poisons. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of biological poisons? The first thing that I think of is how the military used mustard and chlorine gas in chemical warfare in world war one. They literally used biological poisons that were so deadly that they ae now banned in combat by the Geneva Convention.  According to the Biological Weapons Convention, “toxins are poisonous organisms. Unlike biological agents, they are in animate and not capable of reproducing themselves.”   Poisons can vary in all sorts of things so let’s dig a little deeper into the subject.

Poisons are known as substances that are harmful to living organisms. One of the most famous quotes that has to deal with poisons is this, “the dose makes the poison”. This makes sense because any substance in the world can be poisonous at high enough doses. An even scarier part of that is many of these substances that can be used as medicines can be the deadliest and the most poisonous in high amounts.  Poisons vary in many different ways, which can be anything from biological compounds or even manufactured chemicals by humans. Biological poisons are also known as “toxins” these toxins are produce by every living organism in the world.  Let’s explain toxins.  The definition of a toxin is this, “A toxin is a poisonous substance that is a specific product of the metabolic activities of a living organism and is usually very unstable, notably toxic when introduced into the tissues, and typically capable of inducing antibody formation. Toxin is derived from the ancient Greek word “τοξικόν toxikon” Is a poisonous substance that is produced by living cells and organisms. Toxins are often able to be distinguished by the way they are produced. To this day there is still an ongoing debate between NATO and the Warsaw Pact over whether to call a toxin a chemical or biological agent. Toxins are very small and are capable of causing diseases when they come in contact with the human body by the multiple routes of exposures. Toxin or biological poison does not technically specify the method of how it is delivered into your body.   For example “venom” is injected into your body. “Poison” is absorbed, or ingested. The name of this class is toxicology, so obviously it is very important to talk about this. Thank you for teaching such an interesting class. I am looking forward to all of the classes in the future. To learn more about toxins or biological poisons, click on the link below.  

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