Researching Toxins

To launch our Toxins Research Project, students are tasked with researching key information about five toxins of interest to them.  Information will be recorded on the Toxins Research Project handout (Day 1) which is due at the end of class.

The websites below are useful for getting started:

• CDC Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• PubChem (NCBI)
• PubMed (NCBI)
• Safety Data Sheets (Flinn Scientific)
• Safety Data Sheets (Sigma-Aldrich)
• Snake Venom LD50 Database
• USNLM Toxicology Data Network (NIH)

For inspiration, the websites below can help get you started:

• Alcohol (ethyl alcohol – beer, wine)
• Alcohol (mixed with other drugs)
• Arsenic (contaminated water)
• Benzene (gasoline, cigarettes, industrial processes
• Benzodiazepenes (Xanax)
• Caffeine (beverages, chocolate)
• Carbon dioxide (combustion)
• Carbon monoxide (incomplete combustion of fossil fuels)
• Cocaine
• Copper (industrial processes)
• CBD (marijuana)
• Formaldehyde (smoking, manufacturing)
• Glyphosate (weed killer)
• Iron (vitamins)
• Lead (Flint water crisis)
• LSD (ergot fungus)
• Mercury (seafood)
• Methamphetamines (meth, MDMA/Ecstasy)
• Monosodium glutamate (food additive)
• Nitrogen oxides (smoking, air pollution)
• Nicotine (vaping and cigarettes)
• Opioids (heroin, Vicodin)
• Oxycodone (OxyContin)
• Psilocybin (magic mushrooms)
• Silver (argyria)
• THC (marijuana)
• Toluene (gasoline)

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