In creating this book, most poisons of interest naturally fall into reasonably
discreet groups. However, there are many other interesting poisonous substances that
do not deserve a full chapter and also are disparate in nature. Selecting poisons from
this group of chemicals is fraught with risks – being too inclusive or too exclusive. In
the end I made choices based on several factors: my interests (I admit it); the extent to
which the substance actually has poisoned people; its appearance in literature,
including murder mysteries; extensive public awareness of the agent; and its potency.
Medicines are a great boon to humankind and I hesitated to include them in a list of
poisons. In the end, I justified their inclusion because awareness is useful knowledge
and because I sense there is curiosity about this aspect of many highly-prescribed
medicines. Several toxic chemicals are included because they are deserving but not a
good fit elsewhere. A host of chemicals are sufficiently toxic to be included in a
compendium, which this book is not. Environmental pollution raises concern for toxins
in our air, water and food. These poisons are present as trace amounts and may be
involved in chronic health effects but do not belong in this account. Some chemicals
have, unfortunately by my thinking, been unfairly accused and even damned by
popular media and lawsuits. I will simply leave these out of my list.
Keywords: Anesthetics, Bacterial Toxins, Blood Coagulation, Brodifacoum,
Cancer Chemotherapeutics, Carbon Monoxide, Curare, Doxorubicin, Ethanol,
Ethylene Glycol, Fentanyl, Hyperbaric Oxygen, Lethal Dose, LC50, LD50,
Methanol, Opioid Epidemic, Painkillers, Paraquat, Pesticides, Pharmaceuticals,
Rodenticides, Statins, Tubocurarine, Strychnine, Therapeutic dose, Toxic Dose,
Vitamin K, Warfarin.
