In this podcast episode, we discuss cyanide. We've all seen it in the movies and maybe even heard about it in real life. We discuss some poisonings in the past and the potential for future poisonings.

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time. I couldn’t do the show without you and I’ve had a great time researching

the show and also getting to know some of you. 

I have some great topics planned in the near future.

Today’s episode is:

Cyanide: The reason I’m glad

I am not a spy

If you asked people to list

off the most common poisons, I’m sure cyanide would make the top 5. I’ve come

across it multiple times in my career. The most memorable incident involved 2

55 gallon drums sitting in the front yard. While one was completely full the

other was only half full because there was a hole in the top and bottom of the

barrel. A small gully led directly from that barrel to the next-door neighbor’s

yard. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

What is cyanide

So, what is cyanide? Cyanide

comes in two forms, a powder also known to chemists as the salt form, and a

gas. Cyanide is made up of the elements Carbon and Nitrogen bonded together (by

a triple bond which is unusual in the chemical world). This carbon/nitrogen

group is combined with sodium/potassium/magnesium in the powder and hydrogen in

the gas. See my show notes if you would like to see the chemical

structure. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp8.pdf

By Epop - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4300889

Cyanide and spies

Probably the most common

exposure (pun intended) people have to cyanide is in the movies where a spy is

captured. Rather than talk, the spy breaks open a false tooth, swallows the

cyanide inside.  They begin to froth at

the mouth, and die almost instantly. As far as I can discover, this is just a

Hollywood creation, but it is based on history. In May 1945, high-ranking Nazi

Heinrich Himmler swallowed a cyanide pill shortly after being captured. Many

prominent Nazis chose to end their lives this way.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cyanide-tooth-is-not-real

Historical cyanide poisonings

There is a certain poetic

justice in Nazi leadership dying from cyanide poisoning. Beginning in Sep 1941,

they killed at least a million Jews and others using a fumigant called Zyklon

B. Zyklon B is just cyanide gas trapped in an absorbent such as diatomaceous

earth. When the metal canisters it was stored in were opened, the cyanide gas

was released. https://www.thoughtco.com/zyklon-b-gas-chamber-poison-1779688

Zyklon B used by Nazis during WWII

In 1978, Jim Jones used a

concoction including cyanide to poison his followers in Jonestown. This

horrific incident left over 900 men, women and children dead. https://www.history.com/topics/crime/jonestown

There have been several other