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Writer's pictureTripti Agrawal

Why does Cyanide kill so fast?


What is cyanide?

Cyanide is a chemical compound with CN having a triple bond. It is a rapidly acting and potentially killing chemical that occurs in various forms. It can be colourless gas or in crystal form.

These are naturally released in some foods and plants such as almonds. But they contain much less amount of cyanide.


Why does cyanide kill so fast?


Cyanide is known to be the deadliest poison in the world.

It is the naturally occurring compound found in many plants whose even small doses are highly lethal.

During world war 2, it was the highly used poison by the spies and government officials to prevent the leakage of their country to an enemy.


How does it work?


Cyanide molecules are so tiny that's why they act so fast.

Cyanide works by preventing the cells from producing ATP. When a person consumes a lethal amount of cyanide the muscle cells stop working to produce ATP.So when muscle cells don't get an adequate amount of ATP a person experiences inconsistency.

Our heart and lungs are pure muscles so when their muscles stop producing ATP we can't breathe and cardiac arrest occurs.

It usually takes 2-5mins to kill a person.

During this time they are fully conscious.


How can we expose to cyanide?

We could be exposed to cyanide by following methods

1 By eating food, breathing, drinking water or touching soil that may have cyanide


2 Cyanide enters water, air and soil by different means, natural or industrial. In the air, it is usually in Hydrogen cyanide gaseous form


3. Smoking cigarettes is one of the most common sources of cyanide exposure.


So cyanide poisoning may be the last thing on the world's list of "preferred ways of dying"

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