On the rise and fall of ... arsenic?

During class discussions, I was so tempted to talk about arsenic when a student mentioned something about chemistry.  But, as always, the dull boring me refused to go off-topic.  (Apparently I could have and students would not have cared either--two students thought it was bizarre that in one of their other classes their instructor talked a bit about Fifty shades of grey even though the course had nothing to do with that!)

So, why arsenic of all things?  Because, it was fresh on my mind after reading about it in my favorite magazine, the New Yorker (sub. reqd.)

Until reading that essay, which is a review of Sandra Hempel's new book, I had no idea that:

Through much of the nineteenth century, a third of all criminal cases of poisoning involved arsenic.  One reason for its popularity was simply its availability.  All you had to do was go into a chemist's shop and say you needed to kill rats.  A child could practically obtain arsenic.  The going price for half an ounce was tuppence.

Ah, to use Johnny Carson's line, "I did not know that!"  Every day something new.

Even more fascinating is this--arsenic is not harmful to humans in its raw, natural state.

It becomes poisonous only when it is converted into arsenic trioxide, popularly known as "white arsenic."  Even white arsenic, however, is benign in low doses.  Doctors prescribed it for asthma, typhus, malaria, worms, menstrual cramps, and other disorders.

Ha, low dose white arsenic was the Tylenol of its day!  Who woulda thunk that!

I wondered which country now is the largest producer of white arsenic.  China leads the pack. Of course, eh!

In the summer, which now seems a long time ago, I was chatting with a neighbor, who is also an ex-Californian.  She and her family initially lived by the mountains close to where we now live.  When talking, we commented on the wonderful taste of water right from the faucet here in Eugene, in contrast to the awful taste of water elsewhere, especially back in California.  She said that in her previous home by the mountains the water was even sweeter--because of the low levels of arsenic, she said.  "We didn't die" she said with a chuckle.  Thanks to the New Yorker, I now know not all arsenic is created equal.

It is just that some guys can't hold their arsenic ;)