Interesting Facts

According to the Kennel Club, in the UK more than 10,000 dogs a year are poisoned after eating everyday items such as onions, grapes, paracetamol and chocolate. (Between 2010 and 2014 56,000 dogs were treated for poisoning. Painkillers were the most common cause of poisoning, followed by rat and mouse bait, and chocolate. Chewing gum, laundry detergent, sultanas, grapes and raisins along with onions, garlic and leeks all cause health problems that can be fatal to our 4-legged friends.)

Jellyfish use a neurotoxin to stun their prey. (Although a jellyfish can kill a small aquatic animal, the sting of most jellyfish is not usually fatal to humans, but it can be very painful and cause skin rashes, fever and muscle cramps. The venom of the box jellyfish, the deadliest of the species, has been found to contain 61 proteins and toxins, but, according to research, only two of the venom proteins, CfTX-1 and -2, have been formally identified. I wonder if anyone has told them of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), someone should report them to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).) Source:  http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0047866

Botox (botulinum toxin) is a lethal naturally occurring substance, produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and is considered the most powerful neurotoxin ever discovered, but nowadays it is used for a number of cosmetic and medical procedures. (Botulinum toxin causes Botulism poisoning, a serious and life-threatening illness in humans and animals, but in the late 1960s Alan Scott, M.D., a San Francisco ophthalmologist, and Edward Schantz were the first to work on a standardized botulinum toxin preparation for therapeutic purposes and, in 1980, Scott officially used BTX-A for the first time in humans to treat strabismus "crossed eyes". But Botox aka BTX-A is also used as a cosmetic treatment to reduce wrinkles, this was originally documented by a plastic surgeon from Sacramento, California, Dr. Richard Clark, and published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 1989. BTX-A is also used as a treatment for excessive underarm sweating, and many actors...

Plants that smell of almond or peaches are more likely to be poisonous. (This is because of the presence of a common plant poison, hydrocyanic acid. Peach stones, apple pips and bitter almonds are all poisonous in this way, because when they are broken up by the acid of the stomach, they release hydrogen cyanide. Luckily it's only fatal if you eat lots of them.)

According to research in the Public Library of Science Medicine 400,000 people are poisoned by snake bites worldwide. (20,000 people die every year. I'm glad I'm British, we only have the relatively harmless, and very shy, adder.)

The yew tree is the only European conifer which is poisonous. (The poison is called Taxine. “The alkaloid ephedrine, as well as a volatile oil and traces of a cyanogenic glycoside, taxiphyllin, are also present.” HMSO 1984 )

Apple seeds are poisonous! (According to Robert H. Shmerling, M.D. of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, under certain unusual circumstances, cyanide poisoning can follow the ingestion of seeds or pits of several common fruits that are members of the Prunus species, including, apricots, cherries, almonds, peaches, and apples. All of these seeds and pits contain amygdalin. You may have heard of amygdalin as a component of Laetrile, an "alternative" cancer treatment, of no proven value, that may be associated with cyanide poisoning. This harmless chemical lies inside the seed, but when the seed is moistened and crushed, it can be converted by bacteria in the intestinal tract or by an enzyme within the seed into cyanide. Because the amount of amygdalin in an apple seed is quite small, it is highly unlikely that you would become ill from swallowing one or two seeds, especially if they were not chewed. Note to self - stop drinking Scrumpy!)