Fastest Acting Poisons

inhalation poisons fastest

Spew of Death

blithe hunting

for use non CIA...

For more information

On natural poisons, I would highly suggest getting a book about Invertebrate biology. In particular, I would recommend Buchsbaum's book, which, I believe is called something like "Invertebrate Biology" (surprisingly enough). The book is interesting, with pictures and has a good amount of information. The two sections I would must suggest are that on coelenterates (I think that's the name, I studied this subject in Hebrew, not English), which is the jellyfish, anemones, corals and all other bearers of nematocysts (stinging cells). The other section would be the bibliography/suggested readings, which have numerous books and papers for more in depth study. The book is particularly good for non-English speakers as, though the words are jargon, the sentence structure is not as difficult as other books.

And no, I am not Buchsbaum, just liked the book.

Info in a nutshell!

fastest acting poison

thanks . . . feel embarrassed now!

potassium chloride?

This is a really well known Urban myth.

Isn't the fastest substance absorbtion route via the lungs?

I don't know about in Quebecois (distinct language from french), but in english under the tongue is sublingual.

soupir!.....la grenouille mal!

strangely in french too lol
i just didn't though of it at this time, or the i used because of the guy background in chemistry (which is non-present), one of the two i can't remember

BTW: you told me: Sigh...the frog evil

[Edited on 28-4-2004 by Blind Angel]

Fluoroacetic acid...gifblaar...South Africa...

Quote:

Originally posted by Blind AngelBTW: you told me: Sigh...the frog evil

Yes.......isn't he? after all, he is posting in the "Fastest acting poisons catagory"!

nicotine freebase acts pretty quickly in appropriate dose
hydrogen cyanide too
but my personal favourite is anatoxin-a1
check it out

Tetrodoxin!

Tetradoxin is an extremely potent sodium channel blocker which if ingested, will cause muscle paralysis then death due to respiratory failure!
Tetradoxin is found in the skin, muscles, liver and ovaries of the japanese fugu fish.
(A form of puffer fish) Scientists claim that the total amount of tetrodoxin in one fugu fish, is enough to kill 30 adults. They also claim that is 1,250 times deadlier than HCN!
Lethal dose for an adult is 1-2mg
When tetradoxin is diluted to a non-lethal level, scientists also claim that it is 160,000 times more potent than cocaine HCl.
Believe it or not, there is a commercial form of diluted tetradoxin for sale as a very effective painkiller. However it is diluted extremely heavily, no doubt
Here are some other tidbits that are related to past discussion:

During a lethal injection, a fatal dose of potassium chloride is administered intravenously. The large influx of potassium ions interrupts the wave of depolarization to the heart muscle resulting in cardiac arrest. A nondepolarizing paralyzing agent, such as pancuronium bromide or tubocurarine chloride, plus a lethal dosage of a general anesthetic, such as sodium thiopental (sodium pentothal) are usually given before the potassium chloride is administered.

This is also relavent so i will tell what i know. I had to research this when i was younger.
D-Tubocurarine can also be used successfully as the nondepolarizing paralyzing agent used in conjunction with the above process.Tubocurarine is the active ingredient of curare, an extract from the bark and stems of the South American vine (Chondodendron tomentosum). Amazonian Indians use the gummy extract to coat the poison darts of their blowguns. The isoquinoline alkaloid D-tubocurarine blocks acetylcholine receptor sites at neuromuscular junctions, causing relaxation and paralysis of muscles, including respiratory organs and the heart.

The sea snails mentioned previously inject a poison called conotoxin. This is a calcium channel blocker, which prevents the flow of calcium ions to the heart. This in turn affects the hearts ability to contract, which causes all sorts of problems, but will only kill if help is not sought. Poisons are cool

[Edited on 15-5-2004 by Prince_Lucifer]

[Edited on 15-5-2004 by Prince_Lucifer]

The most toxic substance known...

Is botulinum toxin!
It's produced by a rather common bacterium, and is sometimes found in contaminated canned food... nice!
According to some source, a single gram would kill (if dispersed nicely, then inhaled) kill 1 million people. You can guess that bioweapons defense are getting major worries about it.... Saddam made Kg's of it, didnt you know?

Anyway, it acts on (what else) the acetylcholine receptors. Specifically, it's a zinc protease, that cleaves certain fusion proteins (synaptotagmins/brevins?) that trigger the release of acetylcholin into the neuromuscular junction (the interface between neuron and muscle cell).
You can imagine that it takes over control of all your muscles.

Interestingly enough, you may have heard of botox therapy - whereby the toxin is injected into certain face muscles so that they cant be used... and wrinkles disappear. Ever wondered why Cher seems to have a mask-like face? That's why!

Saddam and his toys!

In 1991 after the gulf war, Sadaam Hussein told the UN inspectors that his scientists had created 19,000L of concentrated botulinum toxin! Theoretically, this is enough to kill everyone on earth 3 times
Did you also know that it is common practice for americans to host botox parties?!
As crazy as this sounds, surgeons have devised a clever way to make sure all the botox is used before it is rendered useless.Apparently after 30min of atmosphere exposure, the botox deteriorates to a point where it is useless!
Hey guys, I am going to host a botox party with bowls of vicoden for snacks, who wants to come?

[Edited on 16-5-2004 by Prince_Lucifer]

Fastest, not most potent

you want a fastacting poison
well not a proper poison but if u get pure alcohol (ethanol methaol pentanol butanol ect) or as pure as possible find the biggest syringe fill completely with the alcohol and directly inject into blood stream (best places are the temples, neck, eyes and chest) that will kill them in about 1-2 minutes depanding on how pure the alcohol is and how much you inject the more you inject the faster it acts!!!

Lead

Egads man!

This is probably a synergistic combination. Dinitrophenol was also used in the 1930's as a weight loss drug...problem was, people would go off of the drug and continue losing weight . The thought of a dinitrophenol:KCN cocktail is absolutely frightening--this would serve to both decouple oxidative phosphorylation while lowering ATP synthesis (increasing O2 requirements) *and* the means of cycling O2 (by binding cytochrome metalloenzyme a3--and many others, including cyp-450) to ultimately fuel it. Yikes! A train wreck, only faster.

Please see, Griffith (2002), pp. 622.
http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/media/570cd1rxqr5juknw...

and,

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic118.htm

This is probably very nasty.

Avoid. Please, no one get into this.

Live long and prosper,

O3

well your asking for "fastest" poison so any powerful nerve toxin or channel blocker will work --- delivered as a gas - that would be fastest route to the blood stream and into the different body systems - injection, ingestion and skin contact all take at least a few minutes while gas delivery maybe a few seconds - hydrogen cyanide probably being the easiest to come by -- VX definitely the deadliest created to date so far - of course a small quantity of lead delivered to the brain stem is even faster than that ... plus it can be sent from a mile away haha

Well, if you're going to go with fast radioactives, you might as well go all-out with something fun like K-42 or Na-24. Or how about a spray of hexavalent Cr-48 or Cr-51? Double trouble there!

Tim

Lead is faster.Air can be faster too.What is a poison ? something making you ill?
Or put a plastic bag on your head will poison you? or the CO2 in your lungs. No?
THe lack of oxigen will.Oxigen will kill too.
As Paracelsius put it(roughly) everything is poisonus, relative to the dosage/delivery etc.
By weight,ricin and botulin are very efficient ,maybe antrax too, but not really fast.Augment dose doesn't reflect proportionally: 25x L.D. will not be 25 x faster.
Air,I.V.10 cc(not sure ,make 50, or 100 to be certain...) will be as fast as blood circulation allow,killing almost istantaneously. So whath?Is air one of the fastest poison?
How much polonium210 is needed to mach?If can be mached?(not by fissing it,any other mean:standing by it,ingestion,aerosol,I.V. etc) Too many variables involved!
A fast acting poison may kill slower than a slighty slower actingone.Viceversa also true.

My bet:any poison been in space=fastest poison(6>mile/sec)

[Edited on 15-1-2007 by gil]

LOL! I remember that! Another awesome fumble was in (Teeth of the Tiger??) when he described Jack's Boss as having cancer & being treated with a deadly substance called (get this): D5W!!!!!

Water

Not fast acting but,

It wildy disturbs your electrolyte balence...If your Na+/K+ balence is perturbed your screwed (muscles, including the heart don't work so well when they are polarized which some *fast* acting toxins also do). The headache is a classic symptom (it looks quite a bit like heat stroke--massive salt loss--without, obviously, the dehydration.

I experienced this once when I was much younger and was offered an excellent student job. I went to the interview and found out that urinalysis *ahem* was mandatory. Uh Oh. I was "sick" for two days, during this time I would have 1L of H2O after every passage of urine. By the end of the second day, I was pissing every 15 minutes and was extremely nauseous, fatigued and plagued with cold-like symptoms.

At any rate, at the "quiz" it took so lomg that I almost pissed in my pants; I was much relieved to finally go. Somehow I passed. Apparently a chronic overhydration can do it as well.

So, If you enter a water-drinking contest, make sure to spike it with some NaCl/KCl first and the Wii is yours.

Cheers,

O3

Ricin

Dead man walking

I find Potassium Chloride the most interesting. Especially when it is a solid and it is being injected

I like the compond. I suppose if I could get hold of it I would be more bored.

Quote:

Originally posted by Pixicious I find Potassium Chloride the most interesting. Especially when it is a solid and it is being injected

That I`de like to see! Injecting a Solid

(no sexual jokes Please!)

How about the venom of a Russell's viper? Its really toxic and solidifys your blood, leading to bleeding from every bodily orifice sounds extremely painful, but fairly quick. Lethal dose is rather small too. I saw a program about it (top 10 most deadliest snakes?) and just remembered about it as I was reading through this thread.

Batrachotoxin

Quote: Originally posted by bigbigbeaker

I think batrachotoxin might be a possibility. The poison is applied to a blow gun dart by rubbing on the back of a certain tree frog. The LD50 for mice is 2 ugm / kg so probably about 100 ugm would kill a human by fibrillation, arrhythmias, or heart failure. It irreversibly inactivates sodium channels in nerves and muscles. It works fast enough to drop darted animals from trees before they run off. It's an interesting poison probably synthesized by beetles eaten by the frog. It now in a pain creme where the dose per application is less than 1 ugm.

Quote: Originally posted by MagicJigPipe

I heard the Black Mamba was one of the most poisonous snakes simply because of how much venom it injects and how many times it bites.

Botulinium toxin is the most lethal chemical known and causes long term damage at sub lethal doses, but it takes a while.

It's approximately 2,000 time more dangerous in terms of dose than VX, and ten times more so than polonium. The lethal dose is a nanogram per kilo.

And production is as difficult as incubating some manky food for a while - which is why hygiene inspectors go on so much about not rewarming things on counters and then putting it back out the next day to do the same thing, and the next day.

It functions by permanently ruining the docking sites in synapses.

There are many different forms of toxic.

Hydrogen chloride is labelled toxic, yet it does not a lot more than blister. Some toxins accumulate over decades and don't go away, others are very dangerous in the here and now, then gone. Some mess with brains, others with internal organs like the liver, or internal organs via the brain.

Nerve agents are fast acting, but they don't last forever if the packs are to hand. Cyanide is the same, potentially killing you in minutes, but leaving afterwards if not.

You need to eat a fair bit of mercury chloride to kill you but, unlike the two above, it accumulates and doesn't go away - leading to brain damage over the years. There are also things like PCBs, which are horrifically carcinogenic and accumulate. They, and numerous other worrying things, come from plastics - which are relatively new technology. My mum actually lead a petition to ban the construction of a plastics incinerator that was going to be built at the end of the road due to the potential, not well understood, carcinogen risk - there are many primary schools around here that the exhaust would be blowing directly over. These compounds are considered above acceptable limits if they can be measured in the parts per trillion. Some of these carcinogens can be in everyday items produced from synthetic routes that include them. The antiseptic Triclosan was taken off the shelves at one point after a big batch of it from China was found to have the materials still in it. Water bottled in plastic has recently been shown to contain hormone mimicking compounds that leach into the water from the plastic. There is much to be done with artificial flavourings and plastics. In the same way mercury climbs the food chain through sea life, these chemicals climb through humans in a similar manner. The foam in sofas can release toxic materials at very low rates, but these can then accumulate in breast tissue, and be found in concentrated amounts in breast milk. Benzoate preservatives in food have been found to be breaking down in the bottles, to produce benzene in the things you're about to eat or drink. And there is a long list of E numbers we have only really just started adding to foods, with only their single, immediate effects known - not how they will interact over time or their long term effects when consumed on a daily basis in 'mega gulp' quantities.

Doctors will usually define someone as dead once their heart has stopped for more than a few minutes at room temperature and their brain ceases to show any forms of electrical activity. People can hold their breath for over 10 minutes, but this is because their heart is still circulating blood to their brain - albeit oxygen depleted blood, slowly. Once your heart stops, permanent brain damage begins to occur much more rapidly.

Also, whilst your heart is ticking over, and you're breathing, you can still potentially metabolise out a toxin and recover.

With that in mind, you're looking for the fastest way to stop someone's heart. The most lethal compounds are usually those that can interfere with the nervous system and disrupt homeostasis. VX does that by jamming up the system that recycles acetylcholine, which is found in the peripheral nervous system in the synapses that lead to things like your heart and lungs.

In that sense, you could only declare one toxin as being the fastest acting, and declare someone dead before the minutes of heart failure where up, if there was no way the damage to the nervous system could repair it's self or be avoided - which isn't the case for VX and cyanide.

Some aesthetics are brutally strong and very quick. So strong and quick that they're only used on elephants and the vet has to have an antidote kit with the tranquilliser gun.

There are also next generation nerve agents that are supposedly even stronger than VX, but no one's supposed to be doing that due to the conventions, but we all know everyone is and likely worse.

A more positive goal is producing aesthetics with very high medicinal values - the treatment dose to the lethal dose. LSD is an example of something with a huge ratio between the two, far more than many current pharmaceuticals manage. It has been suggested that the theatre siege in Russia, wherein numerous people died as the armed response sprayed some top secret aesthetic in, was related to the current work into next generation nerve agents.

I'd prefer it if all this effort was put into resurrecting Jimi, personally.

And on a Jimi inspired note, hydrogen sulphide is a very nasty gas.

Yet it has now been found that the same thing that makes it toxic also makes it a potentially excellent life saving tool, as small quantities of it injected into animals in an ice bath can put them into a form of suspended animation; blocking sites that would otherwise be damaged as homeostasis fails. The idea is now being put forward for human trials to see if ambulance staff could use it for the drive back to the operating theatre.

[Edited on 22-1-2011 by peach]

Quote: Originally posted by E-tech

I have to find the reference, but, there was a couple of cold war biotoxins called "Fast Death Factor" and "Very Fast Death Factor". They, IIRC were made from toxic molds or algae. Appearently- they acted like the shellfish toxin- paralyzing nerve channels by blocking signals.

Fish that puff