Description

Now heres one right out of an Agatha Christie novel. Cyanide seems to be extremely popular (spies use cyanide pills to kill themselves when caught) and there are plenty of reasons for this. Firstly, it is found in a great variety of substances like almonds, apple seeds, apricot kernel, tobacco smoke, insecticides, pesticides and the list goes on. Murder in this case can be blamed on a household accident, such as ingestion of pesticide a fatal dose of cyanide for humans is 1.5 mg per kilogram of body weight. Secondly, its a rapid killer: depending on the dose, death occurs within 1 to *5 minutes. Also, in its gaseous form hydrogen cyanide it was the agent used by Nazi Germany for mass murders in gas chambers during the Holocaust.