Toxocology

The majority of these do not have fatal results, but the resource implications for
health services are considerable. Deaths due to poisoning have been recorded
throughout history: notable cases being Socrates (hemlock, 399 BC) and Cleopatra
(traditionally attributed to the bite of an asp, although the actual poison remains
unknown, 30 BC). Napoleon’s death has been attributed to arsenic poisoning, but
the offi cial cause of death (stomach cancer) is more prosaic. More recently,
important examples include accidental poisonings such as the Bhopal (methyl
isocyanate, 1984) and the (non-fatal) Seveso (dioxin, 1976) disasters.

Clinical toxicology
Within hospital practice, clinical toxicologists mostly focus upon the clinical
management of patients who are suffering from the effects of poisoning. Such
poisoning may be unintentional (‘accidental’) or intentional, with the latter mostly
being deliberate self-poisoning rather than deliberate poisoning of one person by
another. There are several poison centres in the UK where specialists are available
to advise on the management of poisoned individuals. The telephone number for
the UK National Poisons Information Service is 0844 892 0111. There is a large
database on clinical toxicology (called ‘TOXBASE’) available to health
professionals on the internet via M http://www.toxbase.org