Oh,

such a good question. It's not supereasy to do. Um, there are variety of different compounds that you can use for what's called celation therapy, especially if someone is exposed to very large amounts of arsenic. And what celatian therapy does is basically bind the arsenic and then allow your body to excrete it without having to metabolize it, et cetera. So basically just helping your body get rid of it quicker, but otherwise you just wated out and try to not be further exposed and then treat whatever complications have arisen. I

thought. I also read something about folate, which i thought was fascinating, because we just researched folate and how higher levels of foliat are recommended for, like, long term mor chronic exposure to arsenic. But i don't know why

i wonder. I mean, i don't either. But most likely it has to do with the fact that we talked about how important folit is as a co factor in all of these various metabolic ses. Ray, so it's probably just trying to displace arsenic in a way, not directly, but allowing ourselves to continue their metabolic processes despite the exposure to arsenic that mace ens. Ray, that's interesting though. I

know, connections,

yes, they're all around us somewhere. In speaking of connections, h how did people connect the dots? Like, howd they figure out what arsenic was, and then figure out that it's such a great killer of people? Ha, ha, ha. I will try to answer those right after this break.

Like we talked about earlier, arsenic is often called the king of poisons and the poison of kings. It is perhaps the most infamous and famous of all poisons and the one most synonymous with murder. And it could be said that the history of all intentional poisonings is really the history of arsenic.

What,

ah, why it was so? Well, we'll get to it. We'll get to it, and you'll see that it does make sense as an intentional, atan intentional agent of poison. And as i'll also talk about later on, arsenic does deserve this notoriety. But like with all poisons that we've covered on the podcast, there is so much more to this chemical than just its role as a plot device in an agatha christi novel, or its use by the borgias to amass wealth and power in fifteenth century italy. Wa alongside arsenics potential for murder, is also, of course, its potential for healing. It has been considered an important medical substance for years, though whether it was more harmful than helpful is in question for much of that time. And it's still in use to day as a treatment for some cancers, which is pretty awsome. But the other enormously important side of arsenic is what happens when you come into contact with arsenic unintentionally, whether through occupational exposure, environmental exposure or through drinking water that is expected to be safe and clean. And these three main phases of arsenic as an intentional poison, as a historically questionable, but present day effective medicine and as an environmental contaminate are the three themes that kind of make up this history section. And initially i was going to split up the discussion along those lines. First i talk about arsenic and murder, and then i talk about arsenic and medicine and so on. But as i read more, i realized just how intertwined these rolls of arsenic all are. For instance, the rise of arsenic as a murder weapon in the 18 hundreds in britain, and its inclusion among many patent medicines came about because it was more available from mining, which, of course, led to more occupational exposure, as well as environmental exposure when it was used as, for instance, a cond so let's get started on this rich history of arsenic.

Oh, i can't wait.

Like you said, aaron, arsenic occurs naturally all over the world, with apparently a good deal of it coming from volcanoes. Like in its natural form, a yes. And typically, you won't find arsenic in its elemental form and nature, it exists in over a hundred and 50 different minerals and is usually found as a sulphide compound, commonly ralgar or orpiment. I'm not sure if i'm saying thatas right, probably not. And although arsenic is widely distributed, like we mentioned, it's not necessarily evenly distributed.