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Dangerous quack alert
10 years ago
General
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4X6OJt-EY
Some of you may know of the infamous Kent Hovind. Aside from Ken Ham, he is probably the most prolific and well-known denier of all things science. He just outdid himself this time. He made a video plugging a product sold by his son. "Vitamin" B17 (not really a vitamin) is the product in question. This chemical is sold as an all-natural cancer cure, and is also called laetrile and amygdalin. The claim is that amygdalin attacks cancer cells only. Not only is this not true according to several studies, but amygdalin is also quite dangerous...so much so that the FDA has made it illegal to sell across state lines.
**Warning: science ahead**
I decided to run the numbers myself just to see if it was overblown, or if there was an actual risk to taking this stuff. These were my results.
-Amygdalin has an atomic weight of 457 g/mol. Hydrogen cyanide has an atomic weight of 27g/mol. That means hydrogen cyanide makes up approximately 5% of the compound, coming out to 25mg of hydrogen cyanide for every 500mg pill.
-The LD50 (dose that is lethal for 50% of the people who ingest it) for hydrogen cyanide is 1-3mg/kg. Assuming a 200lb (91kg) person, that's between 91mg and 273mg. Translated into amygdalin, that means taking between 2g and 5.5g is enough to give a toxic dose.
-That means 4-11 pills would carry a dose strong enough to kill 50% of the people who took it.
-The body eliminates roughly 1µg of cyanide per kg of body weight every minute, so a 91kg person would eliminate 1 pill of amygdalin worth of cyanide every 5 hours or so. Basically, if you take more than 4 pills at once, or are taking the pills at a rate of more than one every 5 hours, you're in very real danger of lethal cyanide poisoning.
-It is extremely important to note that the calculations I did were all based on a 200lb or 91kg individual. If the person taking the pills weighs less, their LD50 will be lower and they will eliminate the cyanide more slowly. Also, cyanide is almost entirely processed by the liver. Anyone who has a liver that is less functional than normal for any reason will be at much greater risk by taking this as well.
If you are a US citizen, please go report this charlatan at http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ReportaPr...../ucm059315.htm before he gets people killed. To fill out the form, you will need the url of the offending website. That is http://creationtoday.org/product/b17-package-2/
Some of you may know of the infamous Kent Hovind. Aside from Ken Ham, he is probably the most prolific and well-known denier of all things science. He just outdid himself this time. He made a video plugging a product sold by his son. "Vitamin" B17 (not really a vitamin) is the product in question. This chemical is sold as an all-natural cancer cure, and is also called laetrile and amygdalin. The claim is that amygdalin attacks cancer cells only. Not only is this not true according to several studies, but amygdalin is also quite dangerous...so much so that the FDA has made it illegal to sell across state lines.
**Warning: science ahead**
I decided to run the numbers myself just to see if it was overblown, or if there was an actual risk to taking this stuff. These were my results.
-Amygdalin has an atomic weight of 457 g/mol. Hydrogen cyanide has an atomic weight of 27g/mol. That means hydrogen cyanide makes up approximately 5% of the compound, coming out to 25mg of hydrogen cyanide for every 500mg pill.
-The LD50 (dose that is lethal for 50% of the people who ingest it) for hydrogen cyanide is 1-3mg/kg. Assuming a 200lb (91kg) person, that's between 91mg and 273mg. Translated into amygdalin, that means taking between 2g and 5.5g is enough to give a toxic dose.
-That means 4-11 pills would carry a dose strong enough to kill 50% of the people who took it.
-The body eliminates roughly 1µg of cyanide per kg of body weight every minute, so a 91kg person would eliminate 1 pill of amygdalin worth of cyanide every 5 hours or so. Basically, if you take more than 4 pills at once, or are taking the pills at a rate of more than one every 5 hours, you're in very real danger of lethal cyanide poisoning.
-It is extremely important to note that the calculations I did were all based on a 200lb or 91kg individual. If the person taking the pills weighs less, their LD50 will be lower and they will eliminate the cyanide more slowly. Also, cyanide is almost entirely processed by the liver. Anyone who has a liver that is less functional than normal for any reason will be at much greater risk by taking this as well.
If you are a US citizen, please go report this charlatan at http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ReportaPr...../ucm059315.htm before he gets people killed. To fill out the form, you will need the url of the offending website. That is http://creationtoday.org/product/b17-package-2/
Claiming hydrogen cyanide isn't toxic wtf is wrong with this guy?