the first thing I can tell you, keep the spider.

Hi, I'm Anne Chappelle.

I'm a board certified toxicologist,

and this is Poison Support.

[gentle music]

Jehovah's witness, Jehovah's Thickness asks,

so can you really poison people by putting eye drops

in their food?

I'm asking for a friend.

Actually you can.

There have been several high profile cases where a spouse

has been accused of murder for putting Visine drops

into their partner's beverages and food.

The active ingredient in Visine

causes your blood vessels to constrict.

It works great on your eyes getting the red out.

The problem is that when you ingest it

and you ingest enough of it,

it can cause your other blood vessels to also constrict.

And when those constrict you can cut off blood supply

to different parts of your body

and have some overt toxicity.

It's been shown that only a quarter teaspoon

ingested by a child can actually cause significant toxicity.

So you need to be very careful in where you keep your Visine

or other similar eyedrops.

Next up, we have a question from Benjamin Sano.

Poison gas, how does that work?

Well, first you go to Taco Bell.

Just kidding.

Certain poison gases when you breathe them in,

they immediately destroy the lining of your lung.

And so if you don't have a good lung lining,

well then you really can't oxygenate your blood

and then you can die.

Poison gases can also work by interacting with the cells

within your body and stop them from being able

to produce energy.

That's a really big deal when it comes to

your heart and your brain.

One of the most common poisonous gases

is actually carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide poisoning often manifests as sleepiness,

and unfortunately carbon monoxide is tasteless, odorless.

And so you often won't be able to tell

if you've been exposed to carbon monoxide.

That's why those carbon monoxide detectors that you can get

at your local big box store are so important.

From Tatum Flynn.

Can you get lead poisoning from stabbing yourself really

hard with a sharp pencil?

Asking for an idiot.

No, no you can't.

No way.

Never, no how.

You know why?

Pencils don't contain lead.

Pencils actually contain a mix of graphite and clay,

which is considered non-toxic.

We have a question now from Brendon FlyEaglesFly.

Did you know that toothpaste can kill you

because it's a poison if you eat the whole bottle at once?

It even says use more for brushing than eating.

Yes.

Why yes I did.

Fluoride when brushed on the teeth helps protect the enamel.

And so it's very good for your teeth, but again,

it's not very good to ingest

because the fluoride is a lot like calcium.

So if you have too much fluoride in your body,

it displaces the calcium.

Why is that important?

Calcium is in your bones.

So your bones aren't as strong

as well as calcium is important in a number of different

metabolic reactions that keep your body healthy.

If you did eat an entire thing of toothpaste,

that's something you really should call

poison control about.

That fluoride in your body could escalate to the point where

you have seizures, convulsions, death.

So please take it seriously.

Don't eat your toothpaste.

Please spit.

We have a question from Emily.

Can you die of food poisoning?

Absolutely you can die of food poisoning.

Food poisoning is actually one of the most common poisonings

that happens in the United States.

According to the Centers for Disease Control

one in six Americans suffer from some form

of food poisoning every year,

128,000 Americans end up going to the hospital

for food poisoning.

And about 3,000 people die every year of food poisoning.

The biggest problem with food poisoning is dehydration.

If you have several days of diarrhea,

you really need to make sure that you stay hydrated.

Sometimes food poisoning can be very difficult to diagnose

because you end up getting a delay between when you actually

ate the food and actually when you became ill.

Usually it is a delay of six to 12 hours for that toxin

to start acting on your intestines

and in your body to produce adverse health effects.

Wife of Chadwick asks can you overdose on vitamins?

Because those gummies are yummy and I keep popping them.

Yes, you can.

However, there is not always an adverse effect.

Many of the gummy vitamins are water-soluble vitamins,

which means that they don't get built up in your system.

So if you've ever taken too many gummies or vitamins

and you've got kind of bright colored pee well,

you've overdosed just a bit.

The problem is when you end up overdosing

on some of these fat-soluble vitamins,

such as vitamin D, vitamin E, some of the Bs as well.

Those like to sequester into your fat.

And so they're harder to get rid of out of your body.

Iron supplements can be also formulated into gummy vitamins.

And those are actually very dangerous,

especially for children to have an iron overdose.

And so in all of these cases if you suspect that there is

unintended ingestion of these kinds of vitamins,

it's important to run it by your poison control center,

especially if it's a child.

So this one is from David Acosta.

Yo, I never had to call poison control at this point

in my life.

How does it work?

Is there like a code system, press one for rat poison,

press two for cyanide?

Do I need a subscription?

Is there a free trial?

You know what, nevermind.

Well, it's really important that you know

that the first step in suspected poisoning

is actually calling poison control.

That's 1-800-222-1222.

It's a national toll free number staffed 24/7.

Now you may think that there are some times

when you need to call 911, or should I call poison control?

Well, if the person is having an extreme medical emergency

right in front of you dial 911.

If you're not sure, still call 911,

especially if they're a child

and then call poison control to follow up.

Leonel asks a very important question.

Wait, wait, wait, how do poison antidotes work?

So there's a number of different kinds of antidotes.

First of all there's the kind that actually just trap

or absorb the chemical.

There are some that actually go after

and neutralize the chemical itself.

Those are things like the antivenoms.

Another one is that it actually inhibits the chemical

at the site of the organ or toxicity.

Here's a good example of an antidote

for a chemical overdose, opiates.

You get too much oxycodone in your body

and they give you the Naloxone spray.

That actually gets into your body

and that displaces the oxycodone from the sites

where it activates.

That's why you see such an immediate reversal

after a Naloxone dose.

Poison control and regional trauma centers often have

antivenoms for the things that are local

to that particular area.

But if you happen to be in Northern Ontario,

where there are no rattlesnakes,

there's probably no antivenom.

So be careful where you decide to get bit.

Ivves asks, how do we measure toxicity?

One of the most common ways to measure toxicity

is a test called an LD50 test, lethal dose 50.

It means you give a dose to an animal and you find out what