MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS – POISONS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO ELIMINATE
The virulence of poisons should be judged not merely on the basis of their specific effects, but on their long-term influence. Poisons that trigger typical symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea but are easily expelled from the body or neutralised may be unpleasant and considered dangerous by the person so affected; however, poisons that produce none of these symptoms but remain in the body, causing degenerative or insidious conditions, are really much worse. In fact, they may have a considerable role to play in the development of cancer, and it is unfortunate that physicians and the health authorities in general find it difficult to recognise them.
To illustrate this point further, I know of one representative of the chemical industry, involved in the manufacture of pesticides and insecticides, who challenged the opponents of the industry to produce evidence of fatalities resulting from the application of such chemicals. No one would deny that arsenic is a dangerous poison, nor that opium is a hazardous drug. But it would not be easy to provide conclusive evidence that, say, the death of a woman who had eaten arsenic to improve her complexion and looks had been caused by her doing so. Even if it were possible to discover such a case, another expert would almost certainly stand up and prove a different cause of death. The same holds true of opium addicts.
*1109/28/1*
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