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99-506: A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide . General Rochambeau developed a rudimentary method in 1803, during the Haitian Revolution , filling ships' cargo holds with sulfur dioxide to suffocate prisoners of war. The scale of these operations

198-478: A poison is a substance that obstructs or inhibits a nuclear reaction. Environmentally hazardous substances are not necessarily poisons, and vice versa. For example, food-industry wastewater—which may contain potato juice or milk—can be hazardous to the ecosystems of streams and rivers by consuming oxygen and causing eutrophication , but is nonhazardous to humans and not classified as a poison. Biologically speaking, any substance, if given in large enough amounts,

297-475: A bath of sulfuric acid beneath the chair; the ensuing chemical reaction generates lethal hydrogen cyanide gas. H 2 SO 4 + 2 XCN ⟶ 2 HCN + X 2 SO 4 {\displaystyle {\ce {H2SO4 + 2XCN -> 2HCN + X2SO4}}} which X as alkali metal ion. The condemned is advised to take several deep breaths to speed unconsciousness. Nonetheless,

396-1234: A bite or sting through a venom apparatus , such as fangs or a stinger , in a process called envenomation , whereas poisons are toxins that are passively delivered by being swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. Unantidoteable refers to toxins that cannot be neutralized by modern medical technology, regardless of their type. Industry , agriculture , and other sectors employ many poisonous substances, usually for reasons other than their toxicity to humans. (e.g. feeding chickens arsenic antihelminths ), solvents (e.g. rubbing alcohol, turpentine), cleaners (e.g. bleach, ammonia), coatings (e.g. Arsenic wallpaper), and so on. For example, many poisons are important feedstocks . The toxicity itself sometimes has economic value, when it serves agricultural purposes of weed control and pest control . Most poisonous industrial compounds have associated material safety data sheets and are classified as hazardous substances . Hazardous substances are subject to extensive regulation on production, procurement, and use in overlapping domains of occupational safety and health , public health , drinking water quality standards , air pollution , and environmental protection . Due to

495-453: A chemical defense developed by Theobroma cacao can be incidentally fatal nevertheless. Many omnivores, including humans, readily consume edible fungi , and thus many fungi have evolved to become decisively inedible , in this case as a direct defense. Chronic poisoning is long-term repeated or continuous exposure to a poison where symptoms do not occur immediately or after each exposure. The person gradually becomes ill, or becomes ill after

594-442: A choice of method. In September 2022, a court stayed the execution of Alan Eugene Miller , who was set to be executed by lethal injection. Miller asserted that he had chosen nitrogen hypoxia as his method of execution, as permitted by Alabama law, but the form documenting his choice had been lost. The court decided to stay the execution to allow for further investigation into his claim. On January 25, 2024, Kenneth Eugene Smith became

693-510: A defense mechanism, as do certain insects, such as burnet moths and the larvae of Paropsisterna eucalyptus . Hydrogen cyanide is contained in the exhaust of vehicles, and in smoke from burning nitrogen-containing plastics . HCN has been measured in Titan's atmosphere by four instruments on the Cassini space probe , one instrument on Voyager , and one instrument on Earth. One of these measurements

792-483: A factor of ~3.5. HCN has been used to analyze a variety of species and processes in the interstellar medium. It has been suggested as a tracer for dense molecular gas and as a tracer of stellar inflow in high-mass star-forming regions. Further, the HNC/HCN ratio has been shown to be an excellent method for distinguishing between PDRs and X-ray-dominated regions (XDRs). On 11 August 2014, astronomers released studies, using

891-405: A faint bitter almond -like odor that some people are unable to detect owing to a recessive genetic trait . The volatile compound has been used as inhalation rodenticide and human poison, as well as for killing whales. Cyanide ions interfere with iron-containing respiratory enzymes. Hydrogen cyanide is weakly acidic with a p K a of 9.2. It partially ionizes in water to give

990-448: A former head of security at Camp 22 , described laboratories equipped with gas chambers for suffocation gas experiments, in which three or four people, normally a family, are the experimental subjects. After the chambers are sealed and poison is injected through a tube, while scientists observe from above through glass. In a report reminiscent of an earlier account of a family of seven, Kwon claims to have watched one family of two parents,

1089-676: A gas chamber in Aleksotas within the First Fort of the Kaunas Fortress . Previous executions were carried out by hanging or by shooting. However, these methods were viewed as brutal and in January 1937, the criminal code was amended to provide execution by gas which at the time was viewed as more civilized and humane. Lithuania considered and rejected execution by poison. Unlike the American or German model

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1188-620: A kind of toxin that are delivered passively, not actively. In industry the term may be negative, something to be removed to make a thing safe, or positive, an agent to limit unwanted pests . In ecological terms , poisons introduced into the environment can later cause unwanted effects elsewhere, or in other parts of the food chain . In broad metaphorical (colloquial) usage of the term, "poison" may refer to anything deemed harmful. In biology , poisons are substances that can cause death , injury, or harm to organs , tissues , cells , and DNA usually by chemical reactions or other activity on

1287-647: A living organism ( in vivo ) muscarinic cholinergic stimulation actually decreases HCN production. Leukocytes generate HCN during phagocytosis , and can kill bacteria , fungi , and other pathogens by generating several different toxic chemicals, one of which is hydrogen cyanide. The vasodilatation caused by sodium nitroprusside has been shown to be mediated not only by NO generation, but also by endogenous cyanide generation, which adds not only toxicity, but also some additional antihypertensive efficacy compared to nitroglycerine and other non-cyanogenic nitrates which do not cause blood cyanide levels to rise. HCN

1386-919: A long latent period. Chronic poisoning most commonly occurs following exposure to poisons that bioaccumulate , or are biomagnified , such as mercury , gadolinium , and lead . In 2010, poisoning resulted in about 180,000 deaths down from 200,000 in 1990. There were approximately 727,500 emergency department visits in the United States involving poisonings—3.3% of all injury-related encounters. Poisonous compounds may be useful either for their toxicity, or, more often, because of another chemical property, such as specific chemical reactivity. Poisons are widely used in industry and agriculture, as chemical reagents, solvents or complexing reagents, e.g. carbon monoxide , methanol and sodium cyanide , respectively. They are less common in household use, with occasional exceptions such as ammonia and methanol . For instance, phosgene

1485-538: A notorious criminal case in Pennsylvania, U.S.; the phrase dates to 1898. Hydrogen cyanide 12.9 (in DMSO) Hydrogen cyanide (formerly known as prussic acid ) is a chemical compound with the formula HCN and structural formula H−C≡N . It is a highly toxic and flammable liquid that boils slightly above room temperature , at 25.6 °C (78.1 °F). HCN is produced on an industrial scale and

1584-447: A poison as such, but to turn the body's natural defenses against itself. Poison can also enter the body through faulty medical implants , or by injection (which is the basis of lethal injection in the context of capital punishment ). In 2013, 3.3 million cases of unintentional human poisonings occurred. This resulted in 98,000 deaths worldwide, down from 120,000 deaths in 1990. In modern society, cases of suspicious death elicit

1683-451: A primary food source. Selective toxicity, controlled application, and controlled biodegradation are major challenges in herbicide and pesticide development and in chemical engineering generally, as all lifeforms on earth share an underlying biochemistry ; organisms exceptional in their environmental resilience are classified as extremophiles , these for the most part exhibiting radically different susceptibilities. A poison which enters

1782-514: A prison in Omsk . According to him, more than 27 people were loaded to a truck, which moved away from the prison, but soon returned back. "When the doors were opened, black smoke poured out and corpses of people rained down." The corpses were then placed into the basement. Teslia watched such executions during whole week. Gas chambers have been used for capital punishment in the United States to execute death row inmates . The first person to be executed in

1881-477: A role in signal transduction between neuronal cells ( neurotransmission ). Moreover, increased endogenous neuronal HCN production under opioids was seemingly needed for adequate opioid analgesia , as analgesic action of opioids was attenuated by HCN scavengers. They considered endogenous HCN to be a neuromodulator . It has also been shown that, while stimulating muscarinic cholinergic receptors in cultured pheochromocytoma cells increases HCN production, in

1980-445: A son and a daughter die from suffocating gas, with the parents trying to save the children using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for as long as they had the strength. Kwon's testimony was supported by documents from Camp 22 describing the transfer of prisoners designated for the experiments. The documents were identified as genuine by Kim Sang Hun, a London-based expert on Korea and human rights activist. In 1937–1940, Lithuania operated

2079-509: A switch to nitrogen gas as the state's primary method of execution. After struggling for years to design a nitrogen execution protocol, the State of Oklahoma announced in February 2020 that it was abandoning the project after finding a reliable source of drugs to carry out the lethal injection executions. In 2018, Alabama approved nitrogen asphyxiation as an execution method and allowed death row inmates

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2178-595: A variety of natural or synthetic substances. Substances that destroy tissue but do not absorb, such as lye , are classified as corrosives rather than poisons. Acute poisoning is exposure to a poison on one occasion or during a short period of time. Symptoms develop in close relation to the exposure. Absorption of a poison is necessary for systemic poisoning. Furthermore, many common household medications are not labeled with skull and crossbones, although they can cause severe illness or even death. Poisoning can be caused by excessive consumption of generally safe substances, as in

2277-457: Is a constituent of tobacco smoke . Hydrogen cyanide has been discussed as a precursor to amino acids and nucleic acids, and is proposed to have played a part in the origin of life . Although the relationship of these chemical reactions to the origin of life theory remains speculative, studies in this area have led to discoveries of new pathways to organic compounds derived from the condensation of HCN (e.g. Adenine ). HCN has been detected in

2376-691: Is a highly reactive nucleophile acceptor, which makes it an excellent reagent for polymerizing diols and diamines to produce polycarbonate and polyurethane plastics. For this use, millions of tons are produced annually. However, the same reactivity makes it also highly reactive towards proteins in human tissue and thus highly toxic. In fact, phosgene has been used as a chemical weapon . It can be contrasted with mustard gas , which has only been produced for chemical weapons uses, as it has no particular industrial use. Biocides need not be poisonous to humans, because they can target metabolic pathways absent in humans, leaving only incidental toxicity. For instance,

2475-420: Is a highly valued precursor to many chemical compounds ranging from polymers to pharmaceuticals. Large-scale applications are for the production of potassium cyanide and adiponitrile , used in mining and plastics, respectively. It is more toxic than solid cyanide compounds due to its volatile nature. A solution of hydrogen cyanide in water , represented as HCN, is called hydrocyanic acid . The salts of

2574-641: Is also distinct from toxicity itself. For instance, the preservative thiomersal used in vaccines is toxic, but the quantity administered in a single shot is negligible. Throughout human history, intentional application of poison has been used as a method of murder , pest-control , suicide , and execution . As a method of execution, poison has been ingested, as the ancient Athenians did (see Socrates ), inhaled, as with carbon monoxide or hydrogen cyanide (see gas chamber ), injected (see lethal injection ), or even as an enema . Poison's lethal effect can be combined with its allegedly magical powers; an example

2673-400: Is any poison produced by an organism, such as the bacterial proteins that cause tetanus and botulism . A distinction between the two terms is not always observed, even among scientists. The derivative forms "toxic" and "poisonous" are synonymous. Animal poisons delivered subcutaneously (e.g., by sting or bite ) are also called venom . In normal usage, a poisonous organism is one that

2772-527: Is chemically converted to toxic formaldehyde and formic acid in the liver . Many drug molecules are made toxic in the liver, and the genetic variability of certain liver enzymes makes the toxicity of many compounds differ between individuals. Exposure to radioactive substances can produce radiation poisoning , an unrelated phenomenon. Two common cases of acute natural poisoning are theobromine poisoning of dogs and cats , and mushroom poisoning in humans. Dogs and cats are not natural herbivores, but

2871-467: Is destroyed in interstellar clouds through a number of mechanisms depending on the location in the cloud. In photon-dominated regions (PDRs), photodissociation dominates, producing CN (HCN + ν → CN + H). At further depths, photodissociation by cosmic rays dominate, producing CN (HCN + cr → CN + H). In the dark core, two competing mechanisms destroy it, forming HCN and HCNH (HCN + H → HCN + H; HCN + HCO → HCNH + CO). The reaction with HCO dominates by

2970-693: Is efficiently recycled back into HCN via the reaction CN + CH 4 → HCN + CH 3 . It has been postulated that carbon from a cascade of asteroids (known as the Late Heavy Bombardment ), resulting from interaction of Jupiter and Saturn, blasted the surface of young Earth and reacted with nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere to form HCN. Some authors have shown that neurons can produce hydrogen cyanide upon activation of their opioid receptors by endogenous or exogenous opioids. They have also shown that neuronal production of HCN activates NMDA receptors and plays

3069-472: Is formed from aqueous hydrogen cyanide: Hydrogen cyanide was first isolated in 1752 by French chemist Pierre Macquer who converted Prussian blue to an iron oxide plus a volatile component and found that these could be used to reconstitute it. The new component was what is now known as hydrogen cyanide. It was subsequently prepared from Prussian blue by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1782, and

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3168-462: Is formed in interstellar clouds through one of two major pathways: via a neutral-neutral reaction (CH 2 + N → HCN + H) and via dissociative recombination (HCNH + e → HCN + H). The dissociative recombination pathway is dominant by 30%; however, the HCNH must be in its linear form. Dissociative recombination with its structural isomer, H 2 NC , exclusively produces hydrogen isocyanide (HNC). HCN

3267-411: Is harmful to consume, but a venomous organism uses venom to kill its prey or defend itself while still alive. A single organism can be both poisonous and venomous, but it is rare. All living things produce substances to protect them from getting eaten, so the term "poison" is usually only used for substances which are poisonous to humans, while substances that mainly are poisonous to a common pathogen to

3366-679: Is obtainable from fruits that have a pit , such as cherries , apricots , apples , and nuts such as bitter almonds , from which almond oil and extract is made. Many of these pits contain small amounts of cyanohydrins such as mandelonitrile and amygdalin , which slowly release hydrogen cyanide. One hundred grams of crushed apple seeds can yield about 70 mg of HCN. The roots of cassava plants contain cyanogenic glycosides such as linamarin , which decompose into HCN in yields of up to 370 mg per kilogram of fresh root. Some millipedes , such as Harpaphe haydeniana , Desmoxytes purpurosea , and Apheloria release hydrogen cyanide as

3465-471: Is poisonous and can cause death. For instance, several kilograms worth of water would constitute a lethal dose . Many substances used as medications—such as fentanyl —have an LD 50 only one order of magnitude greater than the ED50 . An alternative classification distinguishes between lethal substances that provide a therapeutic value and those that do not. Poisoning can be either acute or chronic, and caused by

3564-515: Is the Chinese gu poison . Poison was also employed in gunpowder warfare . For example, the 14th-century Chinese text of the Huolongjing written by Jiao Yu outlined the use of a poisonous gunpowder mixture to fill cast iron grenade bombs. While arsenic is a naturally occurring environmental poison, its artificial concentrate was once nicknamed inheritance powder . In Medieval Europe, it

3663-414: Is their toxicity to various insects and other animals deemed to be pests (e.g., rats and cockroaches ). Natural pesticides have been used for this purpose for thousands of years (e.g. concentrated table salt is toxic to many slugs and snails ). Bioaccumulation of chemically-prepared agricultural insecticides is a matter of concern for the many species, especially birds , which consume insects as

3762-423: Is used globally as a fumigant against many species of pest insects that infest food production facilities. Both its efficacy and method of application lead to very small amounts of the fumigant being used compared to other toxic substances used for the same purpose. Using HCN as a fumigant also has less environmental impact, compared to some other fumigants such as sulfuryl fluoride , and methyl bromide . HCN

3861-530: The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) for the first time, that detailed the distribution of HCN, HNC , H 2 CO , and dust inside the comae of comets C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) and C/2012 S1 (ISON) . In February 2016, it was announced that traces of hydrogen cyanide were found in the atmosphere of the hot Super-Earth 55 Cancri e with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope . On 14 December 2023, astronomers reported

3960-616: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons . Perhaps its most infamous use is Zyklon B (German: Cyclone B , with the B standing for Blausäure – prussic acid; also, to distinguish it from an earlier product later known as Zyklon A), used in Nazi German extermination camps during World War II to kill Jews and other persecuted minorities en masse as part of their Final Solution genocide program. Hydrogen cyanide

4059-456: The cyanide anion, CN . HCN forms hydrogen bonds with its conjugate base, species such as (CN )(HCN) n . Hydrogen cyanide reacts with alkenes to give nitriles. The conversion, which is called hydrocyanation , employs nickel complexes as catalysts. Four molecules of HCN will tetramerize into diaminomaleonitrile . Metal cyanides are typically prepared by salt metathesis from alkali metal cyanide salts, but mercuric cyanide

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4158-475: The electroplating of those metals. Via the intermediacy of cyanohydrins , a variety of useful organic compounds are prepared from HCN including the monomer methyl methacrylate , from acetone , the amino acid methionine , via the Strecker synthesis , and the chelating agents EDTA and NTA . Via the hydrocyanation process, HCN is added to butadiene to give adiponitrile , a precursor to Nylon-6,6 . HCN

4257-523: The enzymes in mitochondria that make ATP . Intravenous injection of an unnaturally high concentration of potassium chloride , such as in the execution of prisoners in parts of the United States, quickly stops the heart by eliminating the cell potential necessary for muscle contraction . Most biocides, including pesticides , are created to act as acute poisons to target organisms, although acute or less observable chronic poisoning can also occur in non-target organisms ( secondary poisoning ), including

4356-488: The food chain —whether of industrial, agricultural, or natural origin—might not be immediately toxic to the first organism that ingests the toxin, but can become further concentrated in predatory organisms further up the food chain, particularly carnivores and omnivores , especially concerning fat soluble poisons which tend to become stored in biological tissue rather than excreted in urine or other water-based effluents . Apart from food, many poisons readily enter

4455-422: The humans who apply the biocides and other beneficial organisms . For example, the herbicide 2,4-D imitates the action of a plant hormone, which makes its lethal toxicity specific to plants. Indeed, 2,4-D is not a poison, but classified as "harmful" (EU). Many substances regarded as poisons are toxic only indirectly, by toxication . An example is "wood alcohol" or methanol , which is not poisonous itself, but

4554-460: The interstellar medium and in the atmospheres of carbon stars . Since then, extensive studies have probed formation and destruction pathways of HCN in various environments and examined its use as a tracer for a variety of astronomical species and processes. HCN can be observed from ground-based telescopes through a number of atmospheric windows. The J=1→0, J=3→2, J= 4→3, and J=10→9 pure rotational transitions have all been observed. HCN

4653-633: The mass graves at the Butovo firing range , where the prisoners were subsequently buried. Examining documents related to Berg, Kommersant reported that Berg had led of the administrative and economic department of the Moscow Oblast NKVD; Berg stated that he acted on orders from the higher NKVD administration. Gas vans were also reportedly used in other parts of the Soviet Union. According to high-ranking NKVD officer Mikhail Schreder , they were used in

4752-446: The molecular scale, when an organism is exposed to a sufficient quantity. Medicinal fields (particularly veterinary medicine ) and zoology often distinguish poisons from toxins and venoms . Both poisons and venoms are toxins, which are toxicants produced by organisms in nature. The difference between venom and poison is the delivery method of the toxin. Venoms are toxins that are actively delivered by being injected via

4851-600: The origin of life ." In World War I , hydrogen cyanide was used by the French from 1916 as a chemical weapon against the Central Powers , and by the United States and Italy in 1918. It was not found to be effective enough due to weather conditions. The gas is lighter than air and rapidly disperses up into the atmosphere. Rapid dilution made its use in the field impractical. In contrast, denser agents such as phosgene or chlorine tended to remain at ground level and sank into

4950-611: The placenta during gestation, or through breast milk during nursing . In contrast, radiological damage can be passed from mother or father to offspring through genetic mutation , which—if not fatal in miscarriage or childhood , or a direct cause of infertility —can then be passed along again to a subsequent generation. Atmospheric radon is a natural radiological poison of increasing impact since humans moved from hunter-gatherer lifestyles and cave dwelling to increasingly enclosed structures able to contain radon in dangerous concentrations. The 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

5049-466: The trenches of the Western Front's battlefields. Compared to such agents, hydrogen cyanide had to be present in higher concentrations in order to be fatal. A hydrogen cyanide concentration of 100–200 ppm in breathing air will kill a human within 10 to 60 minutes. A hydrogen cyanide concentration of 2000 ppm (about 2380 mg/m ) will kill a human in about one minute. The toxic effect is caused by

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5148-461: The 1890s was met by George Thomas Beilby , who patented a method to produce hydrogen cyanide by passing ammonia over glowing coal in 1892. This method was used until Hamilton Castner in 1894 developed a synthesis starting from coal, ammonia, and sodium yielding sodium cyanide , which reacts with acid to form gaseous HCN. HCN is the precursor to sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide , which are used mainly in gold and silver mining and for

5247-435: The 18th century. The term " poison ivy ", for example, was first used in 1784 and the term " poison oak " was first used in 1743. The term " poison gas " was first used in 1915. The term "poison" is often used colloquially to describe any harmful substance—particularly corrosive substances, carcinogens , mutagens , teratogens and harmful pollutants , and to exaggerate the dangers of chemicals. Paracelsus (1493–1541),

5346-460: The Auschwitz and Majdanek camps. Up to 6,000 victims were gassed with Zyklon B each day at Auschwitz. Most extermination camp gas chambers were dismantled or destroyed in the last months of World War II as Soviet troops approached, except for those at Dachau , Sachsenhausen and Majdanek. One destroyed gas chamber at Auschwitz was reconstructed after the war to stand as a memorial. Kwon Hyok,

5445-473: The English term comes from the "...Old French poison, puison (12c., Modern French poison) "a drink", especially a medical drink, later "a (magic) potion, poisonous drink" (14c.), from Latin potionem (nominative potio) "a drinking, a drink", also "poisonous drink" (Cicero), from potare "to drink". The use of "poison" as an adjective ("poisonous") dates from the 1520s. Using the word "poison" with plant names dates from

5544-541: The Greek word for blue ( Ancient Greek : κύανος ), again owing to its derivation from Prussian blue. The most important process is the Andrussow oxidation invented by Leonid Andrussow at IG Farben in which methane and ammonia react in the presence of oxygen at about 1,200 °C (2,190 °F) over a platinum catalyst: In 2006, between 500 million and 1 billion pounds (between 230,000 and 450,000 t) were produced in

5643-547: The Holocaust large-scale gas chambers designed for mass killing were used by Nazi Germany from the late 1930s, as part of the Aktion T4 , and later for its genocide program. More recently, escapees from North Korea have alleged executions to have been performed by gas chamber in prison camps, often combined with medical experimentation . Nazi Germany made extensive use of various types of gas chambers for mass-murder during

5742-1004: The Holocaust . Beginning in 1939, gas chambers were used as part of Aktion T4 , an " involuntary euthanasia " program under which the Nazis murdered people with physical and intellectual disabilities, whom the Nazis considered "unworthy of life" . Experiments in the gassing of patients were conducted in October 1939 in occupied Poznań in Poland. Hundreds of prisoners were murdered by carbon monoxide poisoning in an improvised gas chamber. In 1940 gas chambers using bottled pure carbon monoxide were established at six killing centres in Germany. In addition to persons with disabilities, these centres were also used during Action 14f13 to murder prisoners transferred from concentration camps in Germany, Austria, and Poland. Concentration camp inmates continued to be murdered even after

5841-521: The Holocaust . Gas vans were used at the Chełmno extermination camp . The Operation Reinhard extermination camps at Bełżec , Sobibór , and Treblinka used exhaust fumes from stationary diesel engines . In search of more efficient killing methods, the Nazis experimented with using the hydrogen cyanide -based fumigant Zyklon B at the Auschwitz concentration camp . This method was adopted for mass-murder at

5940-467: The Lithuanian gas chamber, built out of bricks, worked by inputting compressed lethal gas from an external storage cylinder (Černevičiūtė 2014). The first execution was carried on July 27, 1937: Bronius Pogužinskas, age 37, convicted of murder of five people from a Jewish family. Historian Sigita Černevičiūtė counted at least nine executions in the gas chamber, though records are incomplete and fragmentary. Of

6039-532: The Shawinigan Process, hydrocarbons , e.g. propane , are reacted with ammonia. In the laboratory, small amounts of HCN are produced by the addition of acids to cyanide salts of alkali metals : This reaction is sometimes the basis of accidental poisonings because the acid converts a nonvolatile cyanide salt into the gaseous HCN. Hydrogen cyanide could be obtained from potassium ferricyanide and acid: The large demand for cyanides for mining operations in

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6138-541: The US. Hydrogen cyanide is produced in large quantities by several processes and is a recovered waste product from the manufacture of acrylonitrile . Of lesser importance is the Degussa process ( BMA process ) in which no oxygen is added and the energy must be transferred indirectly through the reactor wall: This reaction is akin to steam reforming , the reaction of methane and water to give carbon monoxide and hydrogen . In

6237-546: The United States by lethal gas was Gee Jon , on February 8, 1924. An unsuccessful attempt to pump poison gas directly into his cell at Nevada State Prison led to the development of the first makeshift gas chamber to carry out Jon's death sentence. On December 3, 1948, Miran Thompson and Sam Shockley were executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison for their role in the Battle of Alcatraz . In 1957, Burton Abbott

6336-510: The action of the cyanide ion, which halts cellular respiration . It acts as a non-competitive inhibitor for an enzyme in mitochondria called cytochrome c oxidase . As such, hydrogen cyanide is commonly listed among chemical weapons as a blood agent . The Chemical Weapons Convention lists it under Schedule 3 as a potential weapon which has large-scale industrial uses. Signatory countries must declare manufacturing plants that produce more than 30 metric tons per year, and allow inspection by

6435-408: The atomic bombs developed by the secret Manhattan Project . Hydrogen cyanide was also the agent employed in judicial execution in some U.S. states , where it was produced during the execution by the action of sulfuric acid on sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide . Under the name prussic acid , HCN has been used as a killing agent in whaling harpoons, although it proved quite dangerous to

6534-515: The attention of the Coroner 's office and forensic investigators . Of increasing concern since the isolation of natural radium by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898—and the subsequent advent of nuclear physics and nuclear technologies—are radiological poisons . These are associated with ionizing radiation , a mode of toxicity quite distinct from chemically active poisons. In mammals , chemical poisons are often passed from mother to offspring through

6633-424: The body through the skin and lungs . Hydrofluoric acid is a notorious contact poison, in addition to its corrosive damage. Naturally occurring sour gas is a fast-acting atmospheric poison, which can be released by volcanic activity or drilling rigs . Plant-based contact irritants, such as that possessed by poison ivy , are often classed as allergens rather than poisons; the effect of an allergen being not

6732-410: The case of water intoxication . Agents that act on the nervous system can paralyze in seconds or less, and include both biologically derived neurotoxins and so-called nerve gases , which may be synthesized for warfare or industry. Inhaled or ingested cyanide , used as a method of execution in gas chambers , or as a suicide method , almost instantly starves the body of energy by inhibiting

6831-528: The city of Ivanovo similar to that in Moscow: "When a closed truck arrived at the place of execution, all convicts were dragged out of cars in an unconscious state. On the way, they were almost killed by exhaust fumes redirected through a special tube into the closed cargo compartment of the truck." Soviet dissident Petro Grigorenko described in his memoirs a story told by his close friend and former prisoner of Gulag Vasil Teslia. He described killings of " kulaks " in

6930-495: The condemned person often convulses and drools and may also urinate, defecate, and vomit. Following the execution the chamber is purged with air, and any remnant gas is neutralized with anhydrous ammonia , after which the body can be removed (with great caution, as pockets of gas can be trapped in the victim's clothing). Nitrogen gas or oxygen-depleted air has been considered for human execution, as it can induce nitrogen asphyxiation . The victim detects little abnormal sensation as

7029-423: The cyanide anion are known as cyanides . Whether hydrogen cyanide is an organic compound or not is a topic of debate among chemists, and opinions vary from author to author. Traditionally, it is considered inorganic by a significant number of authors. Contrary to this view, it is considered organic by other authors, because hydrogen cyanide belongs to the class of organic compounds known as nitriles which have

7128-608: The death penalty was in Nevada in 1979, when Jesse Bishop was executed for murder. The most recent execution via gas chamber was in 1999. By the 1980s, reports of suffering during gas chamber executions had led to controversy over the use of this method. At the September 2, 1983, execution of Jimmy Lee Gray in Mississippi , officials cleared the viewing room after 8 minutes while Gray was still alive and gasping for air. The decision to clear

7227-456: The death penalty. It is also notoriously impossible to halt once initiated, which has occurred in the case of stays, such as in the case of Burton Abbott . The same event supposedly occurred in the final, completed execution of Caryl Chessman in 1960. The condemned person is strapped into a chair within an airtight chamber, which is then sealed. The executioner activates a mechanism which drops potassium cyanide (or sodium cyanide ) pellets into

7326-594: The early 1990s. Lithuania used gas chambers for civilian, penal use in the 1930s, with the last known execution carried out in 1940. The Soviet Union allegedly used the method to perform executions during the Great Purge , including by use of gas vans . Prisoners were gassed on the way to the Butovo firing range , where the NKVD normally executed its prisoners by shooting them. None of these saw mass use, however, and were strictly for "criminal" purposes. Most notably, during

7425-404: The euthanasia program was officially shut down in 1941. During the invasion of the Soviet Union , mass executions by exhaust gas were performed by Einsatzgruppen using gas vans , trucks modified to divert engine exhaust into a sealed interior gas chamber. Starting in 1941, gas chambers were used at extermination camps in Poland for the mass-murder of Jews , Roma , and other victims of

7524-555: The execution of Robert Alton Harris in 1992, a federal court declared that "execution by lethal gas under the California protocol is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual ." However, this decision was vacated after California amended its statute to allow death row inmates to choose between lethal injection and the gas chamber. By the late 20th century, most states had switched to methods considered to be more humane, such as lethal injection. California's gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison

7623-470: The father of toxicology , once wrote: "Everything is poison, there is poison in everything. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison " (see median lethal dose ). The term "poison" is also used in a figurative sense: "His brother's presence poisoned the atmosphere at the party". The law defines "poison" more strictly. Substances not legally required to carry the label "poison" can also cause a medical condition of poisoning. Some poisons are also toxins, which

7722-500: The first person to be executed by nitrogen asphyxiation. Poison Whether something is considered a poison or not may depend on the amount, the circumstances, and what living things are present. Poisoning could be accidental or deliberate, and if the cause can be identified there may be ways to neutralise the effects or minimise the symptoms . In biology , a poison is a chemical substance causing death , injury or harm to organisms or their parts. In medicine , poisons are

7821-435: The first time discovery, in the plumes of Enceladus , moon of the planet Saturn , of hydrogen cyanide, a possible chemical essential for life as we know it, as well as other organic molecules , some of which are yet to be better identified and understood. According to the researchers, "these [newly discovered] compounds could potentially support extant microbial communities or drive complex organic synthesis leading to

7920-399: The formula R−C≡N , where R is typically organyl group (e.g., alkyl or aryl ) or hydrogen . In the case of hydrogen cyanide, the R group is hydrogen H, so the other names of hydrogen cyanide are methanenitrile and formonitrile. Hydrogen cyanide is a linear molecule , with a triple bond between carbon and nitrogen . The tautomer of HCN is HNC, hydrogen isocyanide . HCN has

8019-434: The herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid is a mimic of a plant growth hormone, which causes uncontrollable growth leading to the death of the plant. Humans and animals, lacking this hormone and its receptor, are unaffected by this, and need to ingest relatively large doses before any toxicity appears. Human toxicity is, however, hard to avoid with pesticides targeting mammals, such as rodenticides . The risk from toxicity

8118-557: The mechanics of molecular diffusion , many poisonous compounds rapidly diffuse into biological tissues , air, water, or soil on a molecular scale. By the principle of entropy , chemical contamination is typically costly or infeasible to reverse, unless specific chelating agents or micro-filtration processes are available. Chelating agents are often broader in scope than the acute target, and therefore their ingestion necessitates careful medical or veterinarian supervision. Pesticides are one group of substances whose prime purpose

8217-410: The name of oxygen itself, which is derived from Greek elements that mean "acid-former" and are likewise calqued into German as Sauerstoff ). In 1811, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac prepared pure, liquified hydrogen cyanide. In 1815, Gay-Lussac deduced Prussic acid's chemical formula. The radical cyanide in hydrogen cyanide was given its name from cyan , not only an English word for a shade of blue but

8316-500: The nine, eight were convicted of murder. One of these, Aleksandras Maurušaitis, was also convicted of anti-government actions during the 1935 Suvalkija strike . The last known execution took place on May 19, 1940, for robbery. The fate of the gas chamber after the occupation by the Soviet Union in June 1940 is unclear. The invention of mobile gas chambers, based on adapted vans with the storage compartment sealed and exhaust redirected inside,

8415-443: The nitrogen hypoxia method, Arizona specifies the hydrogen cyanide method, and the other states do not specify the type of gas. In October 2010, Governor of New York David Paterson signed a bill rendering gas chambers illegal for use by humane societies and other animal shelters. The hydrogen cyanide gas chamber is considered to be the most dangerous, most complicated, most time-consuming and most expensive method of administering

8514-415: The organism and humans are considered antibiotics . Bacteria are for example a common adversary for Penicillium chrysogenum mold and humans, and since the mold's poison only targets bacteria, humans use it for getting rid of it in their bodies. Human antimicrobial peptides which are toxic to viruses, fungi, bacteria, and cancerous cells are considered a part of the immune system. In nuclear physics ,

8613-406: The oxygen level falls. This leads to asphyxiation (death from lack of oxygen) without the painful and traumatic feeling of suffocation, or the side effects of poisoning. In April 2015, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin approved a bill allowing nitrogen asphyxiation as an execution method. On March 14, 2018, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter and Corrections Director Joe M. Allbaugh announced

8712-431: The prior ecology (especially if the prior ecology was associated with human economic value or an established industry such as shellfish harvesting). The scientific disciplines of ecology and environmental resource management study the environmental life cycle of toxic compounds and their complex, diffuse, and highly interrelated effects. The word "poison" was first used in 1200 to mean "a deadly potion or substance";

8811-727: The room while he was still alive was criticized by his attorney . In 2007, David Bruck , an attorney specializing in death penalty cases, said, "Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while reporters counted his moans." During the April 6, 1992, execution of Donald Eugene Harding in Arizona , it took 11 minutes for death to occur. The prison warden stated that he would quit if required to conduct another gas chamber execution. Following Harding's execution, Arizona voted that all persons condemned to death after November 1992 would be executed by lethal injection . Following

8910-570: Was in situ , where the Cassini spacecraft dipped between 1,000 and 1,100 km (620 and 680 mi) above Titan's surface to collect atmospheric gas for mass spectrometry analysis. HCN initially forms in Titan's atmosphere through the reaction of photochemically produced methane and nitrogen radicals which proceed through the H 2 CN intermediate, e.g., (CH 3 + N → H 2 CN + H → HCN + H 2 ). Ultraviolet radiation breaks HCN up into CN + H; however, CN

9009-437: Was a notable use of radiological assassination, presumably meant to evade the normal investigation of chemical poisons. Poisons widely dispersed into the environment are known as pollution . These are often of human origin , but pollution can also include unwanted biological processes such as toxic red tide , or acute changes to the natural chemical environment attributed to invasive species , which are toxic or detrimental to

9108-447: Was also used in the camps for delousing clothing in attempts to eradicate diseases carried by lice and other parasites. One of the original Czech producers continued making Zyklon B under the trademark "Uragan D2" until around 2015. During World War II , the US considered using it, along with cyanogen chloride , as part of Operation Downfall , the planned invasion of Japan, but President Harry Truman decided against it, instead using

9207-620: Was attributed to Soviet NKVD officer Isai D. Berg . Starting in 1937, he supervised execution of prisoners by gassing them in trucks. Providing testimony of this when he was himself arrested by the NKVD in August 1938, Berg stated that he and a team of secret police officers suffocated batches of prisoners with engine fumes in camouflaged cars while transporting them from the Taganka or Butyrka prisons in Moscow to

9306-529: Was brought to larger public attention in the book Napoleon's Crimes (2005), although the allegations of scale and sources were heavily questioned. In America, the utilization of a gas chamber was first proposed by Allan McLane Hamilton to the state of Nevada. Since then, gas chambers have been used as a method of execution of condemned prisoners in the United States and continue to be a legal execution method in three states, seeing legislated reintroduction with inert N 2 , although redundant in practice since

9405-594: Was common for monarchs to employ personal food tasters to thwart royal assassination , in the dawning age of the Apothecary . The term poison is also used in a figurative sense. The slang sense of alcoholic drink is first attested 1805, American English (e.g., a bartender might ask a customer "what's your poison?" or "Pick your poison"). Figurative use of the term dates from the late 15th century. Figuratively referring to persons as poison dates from 1910. The figurative term poison-pen letter became well known in 1913 by

9504-558: Was converted to an execution chamber for lethal injection. As of 2020, the last person to be executed in the gas chamber was German national Walter LaGrand , sentenced to death before 1992, who was executed in Arizona on March 3, 1999. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had ruled that he could not be executed by gas chamber, but the decision was overturned by the United States Supreme Court . The gas chamber

9603-469: Was eventually given the German name Blausäure ( lit . "Blue acid") because of its acidic nature in water and its derivation from Prussian blue. In English, it became known popularly as prussic acid. In 1787, the French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet showed that prussic acid did not contain oxygen, an important contribution to acid theory, which had hitherto postulated that acids must contain oxygen (hence

9702-565: Was executed as the governor of California, Goodwin J. Knight , was on the telephone to stay the execution. Since the restoration of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 11 executions by gas chamber have been conducted. Four were conducted in Mississippi , 2 in Arizona , 2 in California , 2 in North Carolina , and 1 in Nevada . The first execution via gas chamber since the restoration of

9801-462: Was formerly used in Colorado , Maryland , Nevada , New Mexico , North Carolina and Oregon . Seven states (Alabama, Arizona, California, Mississippi, Missouri , Oklahoma, and Wyoming ) authorize lethal gas if lethal injection cannot be administered, the condemned committed their crime before a certain date, or the condemned chooses to die in the gas chamber. Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma specify

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