Watching a documentary and wondered if you give a person too much of one drug would they just overdose or is there a limit between how much would kill them and how much would just end up giving them severe brain damage, but I guess it depends on the drug used and I'm not really knowledgeable on such things but got curious lol.

Hi everyone,

In this week's episode of The Tox Lab, we're taking a closer look at silver toxicity and the difference between legitimate medical uses and unsupported claims surrounding colloidal silver.

We discuss:

• The use of silver in wound dressings, topical preparations, and antimicrobial medical devices

• How colloidal silver came to be promoted as a treatment for a wide range of conditions

• Argyria, and the permanent blue-grey skin discolouration caused by silver accumulation

• The case of Paul Karason, known as "Papa Smurf"

• A case of severe anaemia associated with colloidal silver ingestion

• The potential mechanisms underlying silver toxicity

Have you come across other examples where a legitimate medical treatment has been repackaged and promoted for uses that are not supported by the evidence?

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

Rebecca and Rob 🧪

Disclaimer: All opinions are our own.

I was watching The sheep detectives with a friend and in it the shepherd was killed by taxine from the yew tree. It got me thinking- in my country (Ukraine), they don't check for yew poison unless they find traces of it in the stomachs. It's not in the list for required poisons to check and I was wondering if the same is true in other countries.

It surprised me how they figured out so quickly in the film the type of poison, so I wondered if the laws were different where the film is set (England?)

Hi everyone,

In this week's episode of The Tox Lab, we're taking a closer look at cross-tolerance between benzodiazepines and alcohol.

We discuss:

• How alcohol acts on the GABA-A receptor and why chronic use leads to neuroadaptation

• Why benzodiazepines are used to treat alcohol withdrawal

• Whether long-term alcohol use changes the response to benzodiazepines

• Whether chronic benzodiazepine use provides cross-tolerance to alcohol

• Why combining alcohol and benzodiazepines remains particularly dangerous, despite any degree of tolerance

Cross-tolerance is often presented as a simple concept, but the underlying pharmacology tells a much more interesting story.

If you work in toxicology, emergency medicine, addiction medicine, or pharmacology, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Have you found that cross-tolerance is commonly misunderstood, either in clinical practice or by the public?

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

Rebecca and Rob 🧪

Disclaimer: All opinions are our own.

I know some chemistry people reference that it has arsenic in it or something like that and "prank" people they perceive as being chemophobes over it, but I don't trust those people. They feel like they're not actually interested in objective truth.

Hi everyone,

In this week's episode of The Tox Lab, we're taking a closer look at the pharmacology and toxicology of MDMA.

We discuss how MDMA produces its characteristic effects through serotonin signalling before examining a case of severe toxicity that resulted in hyperthermia and multi-organ failure.

We also explore the role of CYP2D6, a polymorphic enzyme involved in MDMA metabolism, and discuss how genetic variation, alongside MDMA's own effects on this enzyme, may influence toxicity and the risks associated with repeat dosing.

It's a fascinating example of how pharmacology, genetics, and toxicology come together to influence clinical outcomes.

If you work in toxicology, emergency medicine, pharmacology, or simply have an interest in recreational drug research, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Do you think pharmacogenetics will play a greater role in understanding and managing drug toxicity in the future?

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

Rebecca and Rob 🧪

Disclaimer: All opinions are our own.

DISCLAIMER: NOT MEDICAL ADVICE and I know everybody hates Temu because they use slave labour, and I despise it as well and I'm not saying I don't care about this issue, but I can't afford the ones on sites like Amazon or Ikea unless someone can recommend a trusted and reliable website selling extremely cheap kitchenware and kitchen items/utensils in the UK.

Basically, I'm just a bit paranoid about the possibility of microplastics leaching into food when using kitchenware from Temu and other adverse effects, such as chemical risks, lead contamination and heavy metals seeping into the food.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

The kind you'd get from a discount store and some artisanal ceramic.

I know nothing about Toxicology and I probably got that quote wrong

m in my second year of college and Im really set on going into forensic toxicology, but Im really struggling with calc. I am a chem major and this is my first time retaking calc after i failed last semester, and im failing again. After my first failed test i started meeting with my prof and going to tutoring but i cant seem to get over a 59.7 on any exam/test i take. am i doomed and should i just find another career ?

Hello anyone who is hiring for toxicologist or related field. I will send them my resume. If possible I am more into remote work but on site is also fine 🥲 i just need a job.

F

Hi all,

In the latest episode of The Tox Lab, we discuss the growing popularity of grey market peptides and some of the scientific and toxicological questions surrounding them.

We cover:

• BPC-157 and the evidence for its proposed role in musculoskeletal healing

• The challenges of separating marketing claims from scientific evidence

• Melanotan II, its pharmacology, and a rare case of priapism

• Product quality concerns and dosing uncertainty

• The risks associated with purchasing compounds from unregulated online sources

Peptides seem to be attracting increasing attention in fitness, biohacking, and health communities, but the evidence base often lags behind the claims being made.

We'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Are compounds such as BPC-157 being discussed more frequently in your area of practice, research, or interest? What do you think are the biggest misconceptions surrounding these peptides?

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

Rebecca and Rob 🧪

Disclaimer: All opinions are our own.

Hello! Very specific question, but I am wanting to harvest some invasive freshwater fish and crayfish from my local stream, and to start to learn how to use local resources given I live in a very vulnerable area in the food supply chain.

However, it is reported that there are high levels of lead and some other heavy metals in all of the fresh water here. I have read some toxicology papers and it seems that a solution of ragweed soaked in water can almost entirely remove these heavy metals from fish flesh. I am assuming it would work similar for crustaceans.

However, I would prefer not to kill them until right before cooking. I am wondering if I put live crayfish in a solution of ragweed soaked in water for a while if it will immediately kill them. I cannot find any information about this anywhere. Does anyone have an idea?

An alternative is rosemary. I am wondering if this would also potentially kill them too quickly.

I am considering making a youtube video where I do a experiment with this and test the outcome. If it works, it could be good education material for teaching people how to forage in polluted areas. Does anyone know how I could go about testing the level of heavy metals in fish flesh?

Disclaimer: I am NOT holding this subreddit or anyone here liable for any exposure to heavy metals that results for me, and will be figuring out ways to test this out before I eat what I catch.

Thank you!

Here's a video in case you're wondering what happens if you swallow a lava lamp😫

I ask, because essential oils are highly concentrated, and also because I'm not sure how much pesticide would get into hydrosols and because organic seems questionable to me if it's better given regulations and pesticides used when it comes to organic agriculture and labels.

Hi all,

​

In the latest episode of The Tox Lab, we discuss gabapentinoids, focusing on gabapentin and pregabalin.

​

We cover:

• How these drugs moved from anti-epileptics to widely prescribed treatments for neuropathic pain

• The evidence supporting their use and some of the ongoing debates around effectiveness

• Adverse effects and risks associated with co-use alongside opioids and benzodiazepines

• Their involvement in DUID cases, post-mortem investigations, and drug-related deaths

​

Gabapentinoids are often viewed as relatively routine medications, but their increasing use has raised important clinical, forensic, and public health questions.

​

Would be interested to hear whether others have seen changes in prescribing patterns, misuse, or toxicology casework involving gabapentin or pregabalin in recent years.

​

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

​

Rebecca and Rob 🧪

​

Disclaimer: All opinions are our own.

​

​

Hypothetically if someone couldn’t afford microplasticless underwear would they just be better off freeballing
(Random shower thought)

I've seen a few "angels trumpet"/brugmansia and also datura flower essence extracts on Etsy and online that are made for consumption. (They are listed as dietary supplements and the instructions say to have a drop a day) From a quick Google flower essences are made from boiling the flowers and leaving them in the sun. Does this not pose the risk of harming someone if ingested? It's advertised as being for spiritual purposes. I'm not interested in buying any of these, I was actually just looking for some nice angels trumpet jewelry, I'm a big fan of the flower. I didn't find any, If anyone knows where I can get some.

Was digging into reference doses for formaldehyde and ended up with three different official RfD-type values, from ATSDR, EPA IRIS, and EFSA. All three are credible bodies, all looking at the same chemical, and they don't agree (screenshot attached).

I know why this happens in principle. An RfD isn't a fixed property like molecular weight, it's the output of a judgment: which study you anchor to, which uncertainty factors you apply, how you handle the data gaps. Different choices, different number. And it seems to widen across jurisdictions.

What I'm curious about is the practical side. When you're actually putting together an assessment and two or three authorities give you different values for the same endpoint:

How do you decide which one to anchor to? Do you default to the most conservative, the most recent, the one matching your regulatory pathway, something else? And do you explicitly document the disagreement, or does it usually just not make it into the final record?

Genuinely interested in how different people and teams approach this, because it feels like one of those things everyone handles slightly differently and rarely talks about openly.