One of the most repeated rules in toxicology is this: the dose makes the poison.
In other words, a milligram of arsenic is unlikely to kill you. Make that 200 milligrams and a cemetery plot awaits. Seems obvious, right? But what if we're talking about a benign substance - say a drink of cold water? And this is pure water, free of arsenic and any other toxic substance.
If the dose goes up in the same proportion - if instead of drinking a standard 8-ounce glass of water you gulp down 160 ounces - could it kill you? Absolutely yes.
People have been convicted of homicide in water poisoning cases…
Advertisment
