> At 03:34 PM 6/12/2009, Michael Smith wrote:
>
>
>> Large quantities of arsenic will kill you. Is this environmentally
>> determined? Or determined by some complicated intersection of biological
>> and social factors? In what society has it ever not been true? In what
>> future society might it not be true?
>
>
> Arsenic is one of the most toxic elements that can be found. However,
> regular
> ingestion of small amounts of arsenic can eventually allow the body to
> tolerate quite
> large doses. The villagers in an isolated region of Chile are immune
> to arsenic
> because their water supply contains 600 ppm of arsenic, and they show
> no signs of
> arsenic-related diseases.
Maybe you posted this just because it's an interesting fact rather than to actually make a point. But if it's the latter, what is the point of going through these contortions? Michael S. could have said "getting your head cut off" instead of "large quantities of arsenic." And then you'd be plum out of isolated Chilean villages to post information on. Why is it so painful for some people to just say "many things commonly attributed to human nature or biology are actually due to social relations, however some things really are just caused by biology"? Are they afraid it's a slippery slope and pretty soon they'd be decrying the teaching of lesbianism in the public schools?
SA
>
>
> https://www.wlu.ca/documents/14614/CH226_Lecture18.pdf
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=j-Xu07p3cKwC&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=%22immune+to+arsenic%22&source=bl&ots=lsPZkBa0Op&sig=--7FcmoMMexDwskkvrIVqcd7WMM&hl=en&ei=TtsySve_M6XYswPJ5OHpBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7
>
>
>
> Human immunity against snake venoms is one of the oldest forms of
> vaccinology to date (about AD 60, Psylli Tribe). Since then many
> humans and tribes have attempted to immunize with snake venom to
> achieve immunity [3] Charles Tanner and Herschel Flowers were studied
> with dried snake venom and achieved strong immunity(1).Joel La Rocque
> self injected Eastern diamondback venom and developed a high IgG
> neutralizing antibody for several rattlesnake species.Harold Mierkey
> has done so for years. Tim Friede was studied twice with a
> self-directed vaccine experiment using pure venom and achieved very
> high IgG neutralizing antibodies with mamba and cobra venom(1). The
> present goal is to develop a DNA-based vaccine for the Old World using
> the genes that encode the venom with an electroporation device for DNA
> delivery(1). If successful, some of the over 100,000 people that die
> from snakebite in the Old World will be saved. (1,2)
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_venom
>
>
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>