r/toxicology

Will it break down and go into my bloodstream or will it not work? I see now I should have made it into a powder or liquid first, that sounds like I would need someone to help with that/ sounds like too much work. What's the lethal dosage for boofing blow?

Hi all,

In the latest episode of The Tox Lab, we discuss poison dart frogs and the alkaloid epibatidine.

We start with recent reports suggesting epibatidine may have been involved in the death of Alexei Navalny, before discussing poison dart frog toxins more broadly and the discovery and pharmacology of epibatidine.

We also cover:

-its potent analgesic properties

-attempts to develop safer analogues

-and the evolutionary mechanisms that may prevent poison dart frogs from poisoning themselves

This is a really interesting intersection of toxicology, pharmacology, evolution, and current events.

🎧 Listen now: https://pod.link/1778531114

Rebecca and Rob 🧪

Disclaimer: All opinions are our own.

Does drinking water from a plastic bottle have that much of an impact on human health and longevity?

I ask, because I'm suspicious that microplastics are THAT harmful. I mean they're so small. They even have micro in the name. And most people (at least in the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and western Europe I assume) are exposed to so little as far as I'm aware. The credit card amount of microplastics in our body is a misconception. From what I recall, it's FAR less than that, at least for most people in the countries I mentioned.

Plus, I'd suspect ingested plastic is FAR less toxic than ingested lead, mercury, arsenic, etc. I mean it's plastic, not paint chips, yet it's often treated in media as though people are eating paint chips or regularly adding a drop of bleach to a glass of water or as though men are going to get gynecomastia or less muscle mass from it. So many cleaning products, kitchen products, and personal care products receive similar treatment.

I’m a hospital pharmacist in the US interested in toxicology/poison control. There’s no brick and mortar schools in my state that have a clinical toxicology program, and I’m not in a position to relocate. There is a forensic toxicology program nearby, but that doesn’t seem like it would really fit with my background.

I saw that University of Florida has an online master’s degree that looks like what I’d be interested in, but it also seems sketchy.

I’m thinking about ACMT Total Tox course to scratch the knowledge itch.

I’m mainly interested in broadening my knowledge at this point. I still have kids in diapers so I’m not trying to pull off a dramatic career change right now.

Hello all, hopefully this is the right place to ask this question. If not, suggestions on better places to ask are appreciated.

I am a critical care paramedic and have an interest in toxicology. Because of this I am being asked to do a presentation on common toxidrome’s to help narrow down undifferentiated overdose patients. I have been looking things up to make sure I’m providing the most up to date information and ensure what I know is correct. That being said, in my research I have come across mixed information regarding bowel sounds in the sympathomimetic toxidrome. My understanding was that bowel sounds are hyperactive. At this point I have to have looked at ~10 different articles/sites and gotten conflicting information with some saying hyperactive, some saying normal or hypoactive, and some not mentioning them at all. These have generally been reputable sources like pubmed, wikEM, LITFL, etc. I could understand why they would be hypoactive due to the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, as that causes decreased peristalsis.

So basically, what should one expect to hear with bowel sounds in a sympathomimetic drug overdose? Did I learn wrong initially, or has something changed? Is it one of those things in medicine where it kind of just depends and it can be different in different cases? I appreciate all the help in advance.

Hey guys, stuck in a bit of a dilemma right now. I had a prof reach out and recommend I apply to a masters in toxicology program she found for me about a week ago. She said I should apply within a week or two. I have a background in environmental science and chemistry and the prof knows that I’m interested in toxicology hence the recommendation. My issue is I recently got a job in sales/finance (idk how I barely had the qualifications) and I’ve noticed the money in sales is pretty lucrative (like multiple 6 figures lucrative). So, I’m deciding between pursuing further education in something I’m passionate about or just grinding to get a lot of money. I’m not asking for which option to choose since ultimately it’s my decision but I would just like some insight into things like scarcity of jobs and pay ranges. Couldn’t find much info online. Anything is appreciated.

Seeing the difference in demeanor and conditions from how they’re kept for breeding/research vs playing together in a field has been gut wrenching to watch. What’s worse is knowing this is only saving 1500 of 40k+ in the US alone...

I don’t do animal research myself, but this sent me down a rabbit hole…. including reading this overview about how much waste and useless science exists in this field. It makes me think we need to fight for some real change from WITHIN the scientific community.

I get that IACUC exists. It is not enough. And I get that there are multiple ways these dogs are being used (tox, basic research, clinical trials, ortho apparently from that article). Most of it is not worth the trade off of what we’re putting them through.

And if a tiny percent is - then I’m talking about cutting the crazy scale and waste with which this is happening for 40k+ dogs and countless other animals to live and die in agony *every year*.

These dogs are purchased from hellish breeders (Marshall is the only big one left now that Ridglan is closing) and are subjected to even worse after. And this doesn’t even touch on primates and other animals.

And after all of that, over 92% of the medical trial studies done on animals don’t even translate to humans.

It’s embarrassing that it is taking animal rights activists and RFK Jr - two groups who couldn’t be more different politically but agree on this - to force change that should probably be coming from within the scientific community a lot faster.

We like numbers - this stuff doesn’t even translate well. And I like to think most of us still have enough empathy to weigh this from both sides of the scale.

This doesn’t even touch on another huge human issue - the trauma that folks go through who have to do these things to these poor animals every day. Some of you who do may be reading this. If you are - what can we do to end this?