Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Poisons and their effects Essay
What are poisons and what are their effects? Biologically a poison is any substance that is capable of causing damages, illness and sometimes can lead to death of plants and animals. Poisons affect things when they chemically react with the substance. When poison is introduced in the body it harms the cell metabolism thus rendering it to be non-functional. Some substances are not chemically harmful but when they are taken in excess they have effects like those of poisons. Most poisoning cases are of people who try or commit suicide. It should be known that poisons should not always be looked in negative light, as some of them are very helpful to human beings. Their use depends on their toxicality and the intended work. It is the property of poisons toxicality that makes it to be used for specific functions for example those that are used in farms to control pests, killing weeds and others are applied to preserve building stuff. There are still others that are used by farmers to preserve their harvested foodstuffs such as maize, beans and other grains. Therefore safe in this knowledge, chemicals should not always term as destructive for in other circumstances they are very vital.            The poison in a chemical is not what makes it to qualify as a poison but rather, it is the chemical or physical properties that make it to qualify. Everybody should be well aware that when poisonous substances are swallowed, inhaled or when it comes to contact with ones skin, they can cause unwanted reaction and this is why they are referred as poison depending on the expected outcome. The reason for saying this is because even some drugs that are prescribed by doctors sometimes could become poisonous if they are not taken as the medical practitioners prescribe them. (Turkington, C. 1999)            The most affected of all groups are children. This is because children are very curious to test on every chemical substance they come across especially those who are below the age of six. Most children have itchy hands thus when an adult person is using these chemicals and they happen to be distracted by other things, these children may have access to them. Teenagers are also at risk of being poison victims either knowingly or unknowingly because they like taking risks. Some teenagers also out of curiosity experiment on some poisonous substances like sniffing glue or inhaling other substances. About all teenage cases of poisoning, half of them are regarded as suicide attempts.            Poisons also affect adults either intentionally or unintentionally. These poisons may result from gas leakages; alcohol and other illegal intoxicants and also some household cleaning substances are poisonous. Substances are termed as poisonous depending on their expected. Alcohol is taken for fun but if it is exceeded, then it becomes poisonous and can even kill. There are various symptoms of somebody who has taken poison but these are not always consistent as they vary from one person to another depending on their age, the content and amount taken and the lapsed time since it was taken. The most common symptoms of poisoned victim are: Feeling nausea and vomiting, having cramps, drooling, having pains in the throat, being confused and reduced alertness accompanied with headache. A person may also feel sleepy, experience difficulty in breathing, and they may sustain mouth, eyes, teeth and skin burns. When these symptoms are noted, the victim should immediately be given the necessary first aid and then immediately taken to hospital. (Goldsmith D. 2001).            As consumers of chemical products people buy about 0.5 million of potentially poisonous substances either for cleaning, cosmetics, medication, killing weeds. Most of the chemicals that are bought are used for spraying both insects and pests. Almost every American household has about eight poisonous substances. Though pesticides are meant for households, not anyone should be let to access them. This is because most of the children poisoning cases occur due to lack of proper storage of chemicals and negligence. Other accidents occur because the user does not read the instructions properly. It is required that all manufacturers should advise their consumers of how these chemicals should be applied (NSC.org 2005)            There are various categories of poisoning and they can be classified as acute poisoning which occurs to a person for a short time, the other one is chronic, this is a continuous and extended poison contamination. Here the victim slowly by slowly develops complications until they later die.            It can be concluded that chemicals are not poisons but it is the content of the chemical that makes a chemical product to be regarded as poisonous. Even when medical drugs are misused, they could result to deaths. Therefore all chemicals are potentially poisonous.  Reference: Goldsmith D. 2001. Occupational Health Information on Pesticide Contamination.        Collection Forum. Vol.16. 62-65. NSC.Org. 11th March 2005. Types of Poisons in The Home.         http://www.nsc.org/issues/poison/types.htm Turkington, C. 1999.The Poisons and Antidotes. 2nd Ed. Source Book, New York:         Checkmark Books,
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