Toxicity

Introduction It refers to the relative ability of a foreign substance to cause damage after contact with the body or into a susceptible part of the body, or simply the ability to damage the organism. It can also be simply expressed as the ability of an exogenous chemical to damage a living organism under certain conditions. The greater the damage of a foreign substance to the body, the higher its toxicity. The toxicity of exogenous chemicals is only of relative significance. In a certain sense, as long as a certain amount is reached, any substance is toxic to the body. If it is less than a certain amount, no substance is toxic. The key is the amount of contact, contact route, contact method and substance of the substance with the body. The physical and chemical nature of itself, but in most cases the amount of contact with the body is the determining factor.

Cause

A large number of poisons quickly enter the human body, and soon cause poisoning or even death, called acute poisoning; a small amount of poison gradually enters the human body, and poisoning caused by long-term accumulation is called chronic poisoning. In addition, the carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic and other effects of drugs are called special toxicity.

an examination

Related inspection

Fecal blood blood analyzer check

The most common symptoms of food poisoning are severe vomiting, diarrhea, and pain in the upper and lower abdomen. Food poisoning people often have dehydration symptoms due to vomiting and diarrhea, such as dry mouth, eye socket subsidence, skin elasticity disappeared, limbs are cold, pulse is weak, blood pressure is lowered, etc., and finally can cause shock. Therefore, it is necessary to add water to the patient, and conditional saline can be input. Those with mild symptoms let them rest in bed. If you only have stomach upset, drink warm water or diluted salt water, then put your hand into the throat to induce vomiting. If you find that the poisoned person has symptoms of shock (such as cold hands and feet, blue complexion, decreased blood pressure, etc.), you should immediately lie down, raise your lower limbs as much as possible and ask your doctor for treatment.

Differential diagnosis

Chemical food poisoning mainly refers to food poisoning caused by poisonous metals, non-metals and their compounds, chemicals such as pesticides and nitrites contaminating food. The cause of chemical food poisoning is mainly caused by eating poisonous chemicals or eating food contaminated with chemicals. The main characteristics of chemical food poisoning are:

(1) The onset is fast. The incubation period is shorter, ranging from a few minutes to a few hours, and a few have more than one day.

(2) The degree of poisoning is serious, the course of disease is longer than bacterial toxin poisoning, and the morbidity and mortality are higher.

(3) Seasonal and regional characteristics are not obvious. Poisoned foods are not specific, and are mostly caused by ingestion or ingestion of food contaminated with chemical substances, which is highly accidental.

Bacterial food poisoning is the most common type of food poisoning caused by people eating foods that contain a lot of live bacteria or bacterial toxins. The main characteristics of this type of food poisoning are:

(1) It usually has obvious seasonality, which occurs mostly in the hot season of the climate, and is usually the most in May-October. On the one hand, because of the higher temperature, it creates favorable conditions for bacterial reproduction. On the other hand, during this period, the body's defense ability has decreased, and the susceptibility has increased, so bacterial food poisoning often occurs.

(2) Foods that cause bacterial food poisoning, mainly animal foods such as meat, fish, milk and eggs. A few are plant foods, such as rice, glutinous rice cakes, noodles and other fermented foods.

(3) People with reduced resistance, such as the sick, the elderly and children are prone to bacterial food poisoning, the incidence rate is high, acute gastrointestinal inflammation is more serious, but the mortality rate of such food poisoning is lower, and the better.

Toxicity is closely related to the dose, route of exposure, and duration of exposure. To evaluate the toxicity of exogenous chemicals, it can not be expressed only by the level of acute toxicity. Some acute toxicity of exogenous chemicals is low or slightly toxic, but it is carcinogenic. For example, NaNO2, the acute toxicity of some exogenous chemicals is completely different from the chronic toxicity. For example, the acute toxicity of benzene is the inhibition of the central nervous system, but its chronic toxicity is manifested as severe inhibition of the hematopoietic system.

The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments.