Why is paraquat poisoning so terrible? Is there really no cure after drinking paraquat?

Key Points

★ Most people who are poisoned by paraquat will die consciously and the process is very painful.

★ Although there are successful cases of rescue for paraquat poisoning, it requires a lot of luck.

Another person was poisoned by paraquat and was sent for emergency treatment...

Tuchong Creative

This kind of heart-wrenching news happens several times every year. How terrible is paraquat poisoning? In addition to the extremely high mortality rate and the lack of an antidote, its effect is not rapid, but the pain it brings to people is not light at all. Some people describe it as "a slow burial alive", while others bluntly say "drinking paraquat means you have plenty of time to regret, but almost no chance of survival." So, why is paraquat poisoning so terrible? Is there really no cure after drinking paraquat? Let's talk about this topic today.

01

As a herbicide, paraquat is really dedicated

Let’s start with paraquat. Many pesticides have straightforward names, such as “DDT” and “Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane”, etc. You can tell what they are used for as soon as you hear them. The same is true for paraquat, which sounds like a powerful herbicide, and it can be said that it deserves its name.

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Paraquat (PQ) can effectively destroy chloroplasts and terminate photosynthesis, thereby killing weeds. After spraying paraquat, weeds will turn yellow within 2-3 hours, and the effect is very fast.

Moreover, paraquat is relatively rain-resistant, so it does not delay spraying when it rains. In addition, although paraquat has a bad reputation, it is actually quite environmentally friendly. Once it comes into contact with the soil, it will quickly become passivated and ineffective under the action of metal ions, and will not pollute the soil. No wonder it is so popular among farmers and widely used.

However, such a good herbicide has been completely banned in our country because of its toxicity to humans.

02

Paraquat is too toxic to humans

Undiluted paraquat aqueous solution is mostly a 20% solution. Most patients who drink paraquat on impulse drink this kind of medicine. The oral lethal dose of paraquat at this concentration is 5-15ml. To put it in a more vivid way, the small wine cups we usually use to drink liquor are about 5ml per cup, and 1-3 cups of paraquat can be life-threatening. Adults usually drink at least 30ml of water in one gulp. So it is very difficult to rescue those who pick up paraquat in a rage or drink it in tons.

Such a small tube has 15ml | Tuchong Creative

As mentioned above, unlike many highly toxic substances that kill people instantly, paraquat does not work quickly. Many patients who have drunk paraquat and are sent to the outpatient emergency department will only have some mucosal damage at first, and may even be able to talk and laugh normally. But soon, the patient will develop lung lesions such as pulmonary edema and bleeding. Those who ingest a large dose of paraquat often die of acute respiratory distress syndrome within 1-3 days. Those who ingest a small dose often develop pulmonary fibrosis within 1-2 weeks, which will seriously affect the gas exchange function of the lungs. In the end, most patients will die of respiratory failure in great pain.

Paraquat mainly harms the lungs, but in fact, in addition to the lungs, paraquat can also damage almost all systems of the human body. Many poisoned people will also suffer from severe liver and kidney damage, and critically ill patients will die from multiple organ failure.

The bad thing is that paraquat is so toxic to humans, but there is no specific antidote. The only way to hold on to a glimmer of hope is to remove paraquat from the body as much as possible through vomiting, adsorption, hemoperfusion, etc., and to use large amounts of glucocorticoids and other symptomatic treatments, and to take good care of the patients. Some patients even need lung transplants.

Tuchong Creative

In short, once you drink paraquat, it is really dangerous. Therefore, instead of doing everything in the hospital to save people from death, it is better to simply let them not drink it - although this idea is correct, it is unfortunately difficult to implement.

03

Why is it so difficult to keep people away from paraquat?

Let’s first talk about the efforts of paraquat manufacturers.

In order to prevent people from accidentally taking paraquat, the manufacturer added dark green dye and odorant to the paraquat solution, and also added emetic, which makes people feel uncomfortable when they see and smell it, and will vomit if they drink it. Unfortunately, this is not very effective for people who are dizzy from anger.

Later, some manufacturers developed a paraquat gel that takes a long time to dissolve. The manufacturers thought that this would prevent people from taking drugs to commit suicide due to passion, but some people still calmly prepared the paraquat solution and then took the poison...

In addition, even when paraquat is used normally, it may cause poisoning through the skin or respiratory tract if proper protection is not taken.

Considering that paraquat is highly toxic to humans and is easy to obtain as a pesticide, in order to protect the lives of the people, my country has successively introduced a series of measures to restrict the production and use of paraquat. The two most recent and important ones are the ban on the sale and use of paraquat aqueous solution in China from July 1, 2016, and the ban on the sale and use of paraquat gel in China from September 26, 2020. Thus, paraquat has officially withdrawn from my country.

From Weibo

So the question is, it’s banned, but it’s 2022 now, why are we still seeing news about paraquat poisoning in recent months?

The reason may be that paraquat is so effective that some unscrupulous merchants will take advantage of it and add paraquat to other pesticides or directly sell it in a different skin. In addition, there may still be paraquat in stock. However, with the standardization of management, I believe that such incidents will definitely become less and less in the future.

After talking about so many heavy topics, let's finally have some hope. Although paraquat is very toxic to humans, the poisoned person is not completely hopeless. In fact, there are cases of successful rescue after drinking paraquat, but it requires a lot of luck. According to an analysis of 26 successful treatments of patients with lethal doses of paraquat poisoning, researchers found that if the patient is young and strong, drinks less medicine, induces vomiting in time, and is treated properly, there is a chance of rescue. Therefore, once a case of oral paraquat occurs, it should be sent to the doctor quickly, and not give up the slightest chance of rescue.

Author | Ding Zong

Review | Wang Qian, Chief Physician, Emergency Department, Third Medical Center, PLA General Hospital

Editor | Ding Zong

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Source: Science Refutes Rumors