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How does our body handle very small amount of chemicals?
shvcko99:
I know that many poisoning will come with obvious and noticeable symptoms.
How about if we accidentally eat or inhale very small amount of chemicals because we are not "extremely careful", for example, when someone cleans with spray disinfectant near you but he of course doesn't spray on your food directly but you know, those chemicals are usually gaseous or they are able to "fly" some distance, many of us probably eat it but we don't know it, we don't even have any noticeable symptoms. There are endless situations in life, it's just a very common example.
Does it mean we are fine? How does our body handle small amount of chemical when it enters our body? Will it be just excreted safely or stay and accumulate in our body permanently
Borek:
First of all - everything you deal with is a "chemical". You drink water? Chemical. Carrot juice? Water with chemicals. You eat an apple? Oh my, someone even prepared a list of chemicals present in an apple, it looked exactly as the list of ingredients in a Mars bar combined with water sanitizer, was just several times longer.
Second: it is dose that makes a poison. There are many substances ("chemicals" if you want) that are absolutely necessary for living but poisonous in excess. Heavy metal like zinc is an environmental hazard, yet you need traces in your body for a correct working of some of the enzymes, if memory serves me well same about manganese and copper. Excessive doses of vitamin D will make you sick and will probably kill you given time. And so on, and so on, and so on, these are obvious examples that I could list a vista, there is plenty of others. Your body deals with numerous poisons and pathogens all the time, it evolved to do so and is quite effective at keeping you alive and well despite all the risks.
Third: there is no "one size fits all" answer. All mechanisms you described can act, depending on the substance and its amount. Plus, many of the potentially harmful compounds are metabolized in the liver, which is actually why poisonings often end with liver damage.
shvcko99:
--- Quote from: Borek on May 29, 2022, 03:21:29 AM ---First of all - everything you deal with is a "chemical". You drink water? Chemical. Carrot juice? Water with chemicals. You eat an apple? Oh my, someone even prepared a list of chemicals present in an apple, it looked exactly as the list of ingredients in a Mars bar combined with water sanitizer, was just several times longer.
Second: it is dose that makes a poison. There are many substances ("chemicals" if you want) that are absolutely necessary for living but poisonous in excess. Heavy metal like zinc is an environmental hazard, yet you need traces in your body for a correct working of some of the enzymes, if memory serves me well same about manganese and copper. Excessive doses of vitamin D will make you sick and will probably kill you given time. And so on, and so on, and so on, these are obvious examples that I could list a vista, there is plenty of others. Your body deals with numerous poisons and pathogens all the time, it evolved to do so and is quite effective at keeping you alive and well despite all the risks.
Third: there is no "one size fits all" answer. All mechanisms you described can act, depending on the substance and its amount. Plus, many of the potentially harmful compounds are metabolized in the liver, which is actually why poisonings often end with liver damage.
--- End quote ---
Hi, well, you are right, I should modify my terms and question a little bit.
I wasn't aware that "Chemical" could mean anything. OK, I am concerned about any chemical that are not supposed to enter our body normally, but found in our surroundings every day that possibly, e.g. household cleaning agent, hair spray, dirt or debris or anything found in the air but not naturally existing like oxygen or carbon dioxide etc
Yes, I truly understand that poisoning depends on the substance and its amount. I am concerned about when the amount isn't enough to get poisoned or experience any noticeable symptoms that you will know immediately and seek for medical support, but the substance has actually entered your body in an insufficient amount for real, how they are handled? Are they mostly discharged through egestion and excretion safely?
Borek:
--- Quote from: shvcko99 on May 29, 2022, 08:10:19 AM ---but not naturally existing like oxygen or carbon dioxide etc
--- End quote ---
"Naturally existing" is just another meaningless classification. Practically all these substances exist in nature, and even if some don't they belong to classes of the compounds that are present in our environment. Our bodies did not evolve to deal with particular substances but with these classes and in most cases they do have mechanisms to deal with these things.
--- Quote ---how they are handled? Are they mostly discharged through egestion and excretion safely?
--- End quote ---
As I already wrote: all mechanisms you described play their roles and all are in use, there is no single, simple answer.
shvcko99:
--- Quote from: Borek on May 29, 2022, 08:37:56 AM ---
--- Quote from: shvcko99 on May 29, 2022, 08:10:19 AM ---but not naturally existing like oxygen or carbon dioxide etc
--- End quote ---
"Naturally existing" is just another meaningless classification. Practically all these substances exist in nature, and even if some don't they belong to classes of the compounds that are present in our environment. Our bodies did not evolve to deal with particular substances but with these classes and in most cases they do have mechanisms to deal with these things.
--- Quote ---how they are handled? Are they mostly discharged through egestion and excretion safely?
--- End quote ---
As I already wrote: all mechanisms you described play their roles and all are in use, there is no single, simple answer.
--- End quote ---
I am not expecting one single answer that fits all but are you able to provide comments on my question based on general case? i.e. non-food substance, insufficient quantities to cause poisoning or symptoms
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