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As I stated in my edit summary, the reference doesn't state an exact number. It may be that they were unable to produce a statistically significant result in testing, or it may be that they were unable to kill any rats at all even at extreme levels--though that's really just speculation and doesn't belong in the main article. Anyway, is it useful to keep this questionable number in the table? Preferably, a better source should be found, but the typical chemical companies I use don't have that number in their MSDSs. Also putting "check" tag on the number. 128.138.64.70 ( talk) 17:53, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
This article seems to be slanted towards the animal rights movement, e.g. putting "controversy" at the top, and the only links pointing to "Animal Testing" and "Vivisection" (which in its own right is a fairly pejorative term). LD50 is a value arrived at through animal testing, true, but if this article is to be considered the norm then all drug pages should have links to "the horrors of vivisection"... 62.56.126.163 20:48, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
The references relative to the sentence in the introductory part: "In 2011 the U.S. [...] as they relate to humans." do not provide any scientific evidence of lack of reliability in animal testing. For this reason the part of the sentence declaring:"[...] in response to research, cruelty concerns, and the lack of validity and sensitivity of animal tests as they relate to humans" must be removed. -- AL458 ( talk) 20:20, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
There is at least one drug (fentanyl) for which the wikipedia entry has LD50 info. Agreed, recreational fentanyl users are usually hardcore types (I was one, in the early 1980s!). But there are so many OTC medications or easy-to-get-a-prescription-for medications for which the LD50 is much lower than what laypersons think, otherwise there would be lots more successful suicide attempts. Which don't occur because most people with suicidal feelings think that "if you can kill yorself relatively painlessly with something, it must be hard to get".)
I have seen that almost all blokes on the usenet [incl rec.drugs.hard] are responsible enuff not to give out this info. Ditto for the web. I hope that wikipedians also will refrain from providing LD info for substances not-too-hard-to-get. I dont think that info belongs to a general-purpose encyclopedia (or, indeed, to any easy-to-access source).
23:53, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)mp from Calcutta India
looking up LD50's on a substance requires 2 things, knowing what a MSDS is and knowing the chemical name or the chemical composition of a drug. Neither of these are hard to come by. I don't think LD50's should be listed on wikipedia, not because people would use it to commit suicide, but because Wikipedia is not a Chemical info warehouse. There are ALOT of compounds, naming them all I believe are outside the scope of this site, let alone provide detailed information. Maybe wikifoundation could setup a WikiMSDS site or something... (MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet, which usually contains the LD50 dosage, but this is changing as LD50 is being phased out because of animal cruelty) -- ORBIT 04:49, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
IMO there should be a list of most toxic (eg. botulin) and least toxic materials (carbon, water...) and their LD50 values (if applicable)... As for the dangers of listing them, well, quick Googling can probably find them anyways. - G3, 16:08, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
I removed this passage from the introduction:
Two species are normally required to be involved in the testing. A feeding syringe is forced down the animals’ throats, injecting into the stomach a chemical ingredient of the product, or the product itself, often household cleaners or gardening products like weedkillers. The forced feeding increases in amount until half the animals are dead, after experiencing vomiting and convulsions. Technicians note quantity required to kill 50% of the animals, and then the survivors are killed. No harmful effects are measured, just the lethal dose.
I did so because as it stood it was misleading; its position in the introductory section gives readers to understand that this description applies to all LD50 testing, which it certainly does not. For one thing, the methodology described would only provide a LD50 for ingestion - this might be useful for evaluating toxicity of a consumer product, but not for investigating (e.g.) a snake venom or an injected/inhaled anaesthetic. For another, while many toxins will cause vomiting and convulsions, this isn't universal. And whether harmful effects are measured depends very much on the researchers in question.
This material might be elsewhere in the article, if accompanied by information providing some context on just whose experimental process it's describing, but it doesn't belong in the intro. -- Calair 03:14, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
I'm also quite concerned about the POV of the removed statement. I'm not exactly an encyclopaediac source, but it seems a bit fallacious to claim that household cleaners and weedkillers are 'often' used, without some sort of citation. I also doubt the claim presented as fact that they experience vomiting and convulsions, as my gut feeling tells me this cannot be the case all the time.
80.7.199.165
16:16, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
In the Limitation section, the sentence: "Another weakness is that it measures acute toxicity only (as opposed to chronic toxicity at lower doses), and does not take into account toxic effects that do not result in death but are nonetheless serious (e.g., brain damage)." is a mere nonsense, as LD50 test is not aimed to measure nonlethal toxicity in specific organs. It should be removed.-- AL458 ( talk) 20:34, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
The LD-50 given for Acetaminophen/Paracetamol is from rat tests and is nearly 2 grams per Kg, yet folks routinely commit suicide with doses under 25 grams. In fact the UK doesn't allow supermarkets to sell more than 16 tablets at a time because of the suicide risk. The gap between reality and the posted LD-50 should be addressed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dr Wagstaff ( talk • contribs) 21:47, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
The LD-50 given for fentanyl is 3.1 mg/kg. The dosage administered by one of those duragesic fentanyl patches, total (since this is what the patch contains) is between 2.5 mg and 10 mg. This is administered over 48-72 hours.
Only people who are opioid tolerant are supposed to get the 75 ug/hour and the 100 ug/hour strengths of the patches.
Now, one might presume that an adult would weigh at least 40 kilograms, so a 10 mg dose would be an eighth of a mg/kg/day. And yet that dosage can still be fatal.
I know of one case where an abuser had to be taken to the hospital because of respratory depression after consuming 10 mg in a single dose. He was normal sized and not completely narcotics naive.
I know the point is not to promote recreational drug use, and I know that there are other issues, but someone trying to size a dose might die in short order at 10th the listed LD-50, and probably would at 1/2 the listed LD-50.
Simicich 00:16, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
Removed this text: Similarly, in the case of certain metalic elements, plutonium in particular, the LD50 is properly expressed as µg/kg, or even as nanograms/kg. About 1 µg of plutonium, if inhaled, is presumed to be probably a lethal dose, in the long term, because it is known that it will promote and almost guarantee lung cancer.
As per discussion on plutonium, there is a lot of dubious information about plutonium toxicity doing the rounds without citing any good sources; AFAICT, a lot of it ultimately seems to have come from Heinlein's fiction story The Long Watch.
This article estimates the cancer risk from inhaling 1 µg of reactor-grade plutonium dust at around 1/200 (for Pu-239, around 1/1300) and cites several other sources that yield similar numbers. Markedly lower numbers need to be supported with citations. -- Calair 04:11, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
OK; but I doubt you'd be willing to inhale some plutonium dust. Or would you? Show us all how brave you are. :)
I recall a Dr Cohen (probably Samuel, probably not the same Cohen) who proposed building an extremely radioactive wall, or trench, around Israel. It would kill anyone who went near it, to defend that country against its enemies. I hadn't read too many ideas that were crazier than that one. He was a scientist. I believe he worked at Los Alamos. It made me think of Dr Edward Teller and his insane idea, that the world could survive even a full-scale thermonuclear war; no problem.
I'm inclined to believe that *some* pro-nuclear scientists (like scientists who work for the food, drug or tobacco industry, or really any field where there is money to be made) have agendas that can make their scientific judgement suspect.
For example. In the 1950's, one of the Atomic Energy Commission's top scientists began promoting the term "sunshine unit", to describe exposure to nucleotides and radiation. Like it was no more worrisome than getting a suntan. We all know that by the 1960's, fallout had become such a serious problem that it led to the end of above-ground nuclear testing.
However: point taken. I accept your edit. It was really a point about *units*, anyway. I gave plutonium as an example. Thanks for your explanation, but I don't think you need to reach as far as SCIENCE FICTION to express your objection. lol -- Stellar-TO
Come on, that image is horrible. Improfane 01:16, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
It is usually expressed in terms of mg-min/m³ or ppm
I removed 'ppm' because the units don't match - ppm is a concentration, whereas LCt50 is a concentration * time. This may have been a typo for ppm*min, but I don't know for sure. Will also change 'usually' to 'often' since I don't know whether mg-min/m^3 qualifies as 'usually' without this second unit. -- Calair 03:14, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
Is there a general database for all (almost all?) known LD50 values for all tested chemicals? - Samulili 10:26, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
Removed semilethal dose from the intro, I work with chemicals and haven't heard the term "semilethal dose" being used for LD50. It is also very misleading as it is a fully lethal dose for 50% of the population, while semilethal could be read as sublethal. Dictionary.com for example uses the term "median lethal dose" which is more accurate. Sad mouse 00:24, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
since it seems rather tedious to write out LD50 in it's html/wikified form, I made a template in which when you wish to say LD50 you simply type {{LD50}}-- Neur0X . talk 00:40, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
The official standardized method to measure the LD50 is described well under the OECD-methods 401, 402 and 403. The LD50 is a statistical value obtained on biological material. Consequently it has mostly a broad standard deviation.
It might be an idea to mention the ED50 (Effictive dose, 50%) in here as well. This is the amount of a substance that gives the desired therapeutic effect. If these are in same page the LD50/ED50 ratio should also be mentioned, it is a good indicator of how easy it is to take an accidental overdose.
One faces often an confusing (confused) values of LD50 in humans. For instance:
"LD50 of batrachotoxin: estimated at 1 to 2 µg/kg in humans."
Now, it is certainly possible to extrapolate some biochemical/toxicological research values to get an "estimated LD50 in human", but is it of any worth? Moreover, often the "LD50" dose is beeing unintentionally interchanged with the lethal/fatal dose in human (so often exaggerated use of specific expert terms by general public or media, sometimes even inappropriate use of these terms by an expert). That is, f.e., from the information, that a 300 mg dose of potassium cyanide ingested killed an 75 kg individual, is concluded, that the "oral LD50 in human" is 4 mg/kg.
I think, that it is not right to mention an LD50 dose in human, unless it is really found out by an LD50-experiment (which is, beside some Nazi crimes during WW2, almost certainly not), because:
a) it is almost never plausible enough precise, because not based on realistic, controlled experiments;
b) it is of no practical value; even if an LD50 value for a specific chemical/poison was known, it would have no effect on medical and/or forensic aspect of the toxicity of substance/poisoning by substance; in most poisonings, intensive/specific medical care is needed even if LD10, LD1 or LDLo are ingested/resorbed. On the other hand, even a LD99 dose must not be inevitably lethal in an individual.
I would suggest the more appropriate and rational use of terms "estimated LD in human" (which could be anything from LD10 to LD99), or "LDLo".--
84.163.109.162
12:12, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 16:29, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
Just wanted to announce the creation of a new Toxicology Task Force under WikiProject Medicine. Feel free to come and sign up. Thanks -- Jrtayloriv ( talk) 04:06, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
The weaknesses of LD50 are adequately described in other sections. Where it was placed, this implied that the animal cruelty concerns outweighed the value of the measurement, which would be an unsourced judgement rather than a statement of fact. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.227.165.106 ( talk) 08:20, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
How was this site not a good source for the human LD50 of LSD? -- Whoop whoop pull up Bitching Betty | Averted crashes 00:09, 18 June 2011 (UTC)
seems to be a solid reference which correlates perfectly with the data the CIA produced in the 50s and 60s
121.99.56.29 (
talk)
20:09, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
This reference is a dead link . Woudl love to see an oral dose for LSD to compare with e.g. MDMA and Psilocybin. Intravenous is not relevant to LSD :( MarmotteiNoZ 02:43, 11 July 2022 (UTC)
...is Ionizing radiation in the list? Since it can't be directly compared, via mg/g, it is only confusing and offers no understanding to the article topic. I would simply remove now, but perhaps there is a good reason that I just haven't deduced, and wanted to hear it before I simply deleted that entry. Dennis Brown ( talk) 15:10, 3 August 2011 (UTC)
I started formatting the table so that it could be sorted by LD50 before I saw that it was listed in decreasing order of LD50. This should be unnoticeable for the reader, except that now about 1/3 of the values in the LD50 column will sort correctly whereas previously ~0 would. I'll leave it where it is rather than continuing to make an unnecessary change or undoing work that might be useful later.-- Wikimedes ( talk) 06:31, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
Seemed these sources are no longer working. It has stated: "The University of Oxford Department of Chemistry MSDS web resource is no longer being maintained. Since this resource provided safety information it is not appropriate that the MSDS web resource is still used as a reference resource. The manufacturers and suppliers have a legal duty to provide and maintain MSDS information for the chemicals that they sell. Please refer to the suppliers web pages for safety information and data sheets."-- Inspector ( talk) 13:21, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
source 32 directs to a webpage that does not load — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.65.96.146 ( talk) 21:29, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
IPs seem to be repeatedly incorporating a link to a cartoon. Suggest semi-protect this page to prevent this. Lesion ( talk) 14:35, 11 September 2013 (UTC)
All the references to MSDS are dead now, and it seems like they have been since 2011. Either remove the references or try provide another resource. (at this point this concerns reference numbers 7, 12, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 35, 36,37 and 40 (that's a lot)) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.189.227.94 ( talk) 03:11, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
Is there a typical probability distribution that can be derived from just the LD50 value and that works for most toxins? If so, this should be stated in the article. If not, of what value is LD50 alone? -- Mudd1 ( talk) 18:47, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
I note this article was deleted and redirected to median lethal dose, removing some content. Acknowledging the need for bold edits, by user:Emily Temple-Wood (NIOSH) who is a wikipedian in residence, deleting such significant amounts of content, and merging content needs at least some discussion on talk pages. 2001:44B8:21B:8F00:D1A0:8003:7AF8:7DA ( talk) 12:49, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
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I noticed that when sorting by LD50 it does not sort in numerical order, but instead considers each value as a character string and sorts them alphabetically. For example, 2 mg/kg is sorted as lower than 300 mg/kg. — Preceding unsigned comment added by YuliEuphemism ( talk • contribs) 18:52, 2 September 2016 (UTC)
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As I stated in my edit summary, the reference doesn't state an exact number. It may be that they were unable to produce a statistically significant result in testing, or it may be that they were unable to kill any rats at all even at extreme levels--though that's really just speculation and doesn't belong in the main article. Anyway, is it useful to keep this questionable number in the table? Preferably, a better source should be found, but the typical chemical companies I use don't have that number in their MSDSs. Also putting "check" tag on the number. 128.138.64.70 ( talk) 17:53, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
This article seems to be slanted towards the animal rights movement, e.g. putting "controversy" at the top, and the only links pointing to "Animal Testing" and "Vivisection" (which in its own right is a fairly pejorative term). LD50 is a value arrived at through animal testing, true, but if this article is to be considered the norm then all drug pages should have links to "the horrors of vivisection"... 62.56.126.163 20:48, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
The references relative to the sentence in the introductory part: "In 2011 the U.S. [...] as they relate to humans." do not provide any scientific evidence of lack of reliability in animal testing. For this reason the part of the sentence declaring:"[...] in response to research, cruelty concerns, and the lack of validity and sensitivity of animal tests as they relate to humans" must be removed. -- AL458 ( talk) 20:20, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
There is at least one drug (fentanyl) for which the wikipedia entry has LD50 info. Agreed, recreational fentanyl users are usually hardcore types (I was one, in the early 1980s!). But there are so many OTC medications or easy-to-get-a-prescription-for medications for which the LD50 is much lower than what laypersons think, otherwise there would be lots more successful suicide attempts. Which don't occur because most people with suicidal feelings think that "if you can kill yorself relatively painlessly with something, it must be hard to get".)
I have seen that almost all blokes on the usenet [incl rec.drugs.hard] are responsible enuff not to give out this info. Ditto for the web. I hope that wikipedians also will refrain from providing LD info for substances not-too-hard-to-get. I dont think that info belongs to a general-purpose encyclopedia (or, indeed, to any easy-to-access source).
23:53, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)mp from Calcutta India
looking up LD50's on a substance requires 2 things, knowing what a MSDS is and knowing the chemical name or the chemical composition of a drug. Neither of these are hard to come by. I don't think LD50's should be listed on wikipedia, not because people would use it to commit suicide, but because Wikipedia is not a Chemical info warehouse. There are ALOT of compounds, naming them all I believe are outside the scope of this site, let alone provide detailed information. Maybe wikifoundation could setup a WikiMSDS site or something... (MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet, which usually contains the LD50 dosage, but this is changing as LD50 is being phased out because of animal cruelty) -- ORBIT 04:49, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
IMO there should be a list of most toxic (eg. botulin) and least toxic materials (carbon, water...) and their LD50 values (if applicable)... As for the dangers of listing them, well, quick Googling can probably find them anyways. - G3, 16:08, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
I removed this passage from the introduction:
Two species are normally required to be involved in the testing. A feeding syringe is forced down the animals’ throats, injecting into the stomach a chemical ingredient of the product, or the product itself, often household cleaners or gardening products like weedkillers. The forced feeding increases in amount until half the animals are dead, after experiencing vomiting and convulsions. Technicians note quantity required to kill 50% of the animals, and then the survivors are killed. No harmful effects are measured, just the lethal dose.
I did so because as it stood it was misleading; its position in the introductory section gives readers to understand that this description applies to all LD50 testing, which it certainly does not. For one thing, the methodology described would only provide a LD50 for ingestion - this might be useful for evaluating toxicity of a consumer product, but not for investigating (e.g.) a snake venom or an injected/inhaled anaesthetic. For another, while many toxins will cause vomiting and convulsions, this isn't universal. And whether harmful effects are measured depends very much on the researchers in question.
This material might be elsewhere in the article, if accompanied by information providing some context on just whose experimental process it's describing, but it doesn't belong in the intro. -- Calair 03:14, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
I'm also quite concerned about the POV of the removed statement. I'm not exactly an encyclopaediac source, but it seems a bit fallacious to claim that household cleaners and weedkillers are 'often' used, without some sort of citation. I also doubt the claim presented as fact that they experience vomiting and convulsions, as my gut feeling tells me this cannot be the case all the time.
80.7.199.165
16:16, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
In the Limitation section, the sentence: "Another weakness is that it measures acute toxicity only (as opposed to chronic toxicity at lower doses), and does not take into account toxic effects that do not result in death but are nonetheless serious (e.g., brain damage)." is a mere nonsense, as LD50 test is not aimed to measure nonlethal toxicity in specific organs. It should be removed.-- AL458 ( talk) 20:34, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
The LD-50 given for Acetaminophen/Paracetamol is from rat tests and is nearly 2 grams per Kg, yet folks routinely commit suicide with doses under 25 grams. In fact the UK doesn't allow supermarkets to sell more than 16 tablets at a time because of the suicide risk. The gap between reality and the posted LD-50 should be addressed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dr Wagstaff ( talk • contribs) 21:47, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
The LD-50 given for fentanyl is 3.1 mg/kg. The dosage administered by one of those duragesic fentanyl patches, total (since this is what the patch contains) is between 2.5 mg and 10 mg. This is administered over 48-72 hours.
Only people who are opioid tolerant are supposed to get the 75 ug/hour and the 100 ug/hour strengths of the patches.
Now, one might presume that an adult would weigh at least 40 kilograms, so a 10 mg dose would be an eighth of a mg/kg/day. And yet that dosage can still be fatal.
I know of one case where an abuser had to be taken to the hospital because of respratory depression after consuming 10 mg in a single dose. He was normal sized and not completely narcotics naive.
I know the point is not to promote recreational drug use, and I know that there are other issues, but someone trying to size a dose might die in short order at 10th the listed LD-50, and probably would at 1/2 the listed LD-50.
Simicich 00:16, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
Removed this text: Similarly, in the case of certain metalic elements, plutonium in particular, the LD50 is properly expressed as µg/kg, or even as nanograms/kg. About 1 µg of plutonium, if inhaled, is presumed to be probably a lethal dose, in the long term, because it is known that it will promote and almost guarantee lung cancer.
As per discussion on plutonium, there is a lot of dubious information about plutonium toxicity doing the rounds without citing any good sources; AFAICT, a lot of it ultimately seems to have come from Heinlein's fiction story The Long Watch.
This article estimates the cancer risk from inhaling 1 µg of reactor-grade plutonium dust at around 1/200 (for Pu-239, around 1/1300) and cites several other sources that yield similar numbers. Markedly lower numbers need to be supported with citations. -- Calair 04:11, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
OK; but I doubt you'd be willing to inhale some plutonium dust. Or would you? Show us all how brave you are. :)
I recall a Dr Cohen (probably Samuel, probably not the same Cohen) who proposed building an extremely radioactive wall, or trench, around Israel. It would kill anyone who went near it, to defend that country against its enemies. I hadn't read too many ideas that were crazier than that one. He was a scientist. I believe he worked at Los Alamos. It made me think of Dr Edward Teller and his insane idea, that the world could survive even a full-scale thermonuclear war; no problem.
I'm inclined to believe that *some* pro-nuclear scientists (like scientists who work for the food, drug or tobacco industry, or really any field where there is money to be made) have agendas that can make their scientific judgement suspect.
For example. In the 1950's, one of the Atomic Energy Commission's top scientists began promoting the term "sunshine unit", to describe exposure to nucleotides and radiation. Like it was no more worrisome than getting a suntan. We all know that by the 1960's, fallout had become such a serious problem that it led to the end of above-ground nuclear testing.
However: point taken. I accept your edit. It was really a point about *units*, anyway. I gave plutonium as an example. Thanks for your explanation, but I don't think you need to reach as far as SCIENCE FICTION to express your objection. lol -- Stellar-TO
Come on, that image is horrible. Improfane 01:16, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
It is usually expressed in terms of mg-min/m³ or ppm
I removed 'ppm' because the units don't match - ppm is a concentration, whereas LCt50 is a concentration * time. This may have been a typo for ppm*min, but I don't know for sure. Will also change 'usually' to 'often' since I don't know whether mg-min/m^3 qualifies as 'usually' without this second unit. -- Calair 03:14, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
Is there a general database for all (almost all?) known LD50 values for all tested chemicals? - Samulili 10:26, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
Removed semilethal dose from the intro, I work with chemicals and haven't heard the term "semilethal dose" being used for LD50. It is also very misleading as it is a fully lethal dose for 50% of the population, while semilethal could be read as sublethal. Dictionary.com for example uses the term "median lethal dose" which is more accurate. Sad mouse 00:24, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
since it seems rather tedious to write out LD50 in it's html/wikified form, I made a template in which when you wish to say LD50 you simply type {{LD50}}-- Neur0X . talk 00:40, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
The official standardized method to measure the LD50 is described well under the OECD-methods 401, 402 and 403. The LD50 is a statistical value obtained on biological material. Consequently it has mostly a broad standard deviation.
It might be an idea to mention the ED50 (Effictive dose, 50%) in here as well. This is the amount of a substance that gives the desired therapeutic effect. If these are in same page the LD50/ED50 ratio should also be mentioned, it is a good indicator of how easy it is to take an accidental overdose.
One faces often an confusing (confused) values of LD50 in humans. For instance:
"LD50 of batrachotoxin: estimated at 1 to 2 µg/kg in humans."
Now, it is certainly possible to extrapolate some biochemical/toxicological research values to get an "estimated LD50 in human", but is it of any worth? Moreover, often the "LD50" dose is beeing unintentionally interchanged with the lethal/fatal dose in human (so often exaggerated use of specific expert terms by general public or media, sometimes even inappropriate use of these terms by an expert). That is, f.e., from the information, that a 300 mg dose of potassium cyanide ingested killed an 75 kg individual, is concluded, that the "oral LD50 in human" is 4 mg/kg.
I think, that it is not right to mention an LD50 dose in human, unless it is really found out by an LD50-experiment (which is, beside some Nazi crimes during WW2, almost certainly not), because:
a) it is almost never plausible enough precise, because not based on realistic, controlled experiments;
b) it is of no practical value; even if an LD50 value for a specific chemical/poison was known, it would have no effect on medical and/or forensic aspect of the toxicity of substance/poisoning by substance; in most poisonings, intensive/specific medical care is needed even if LD10, LD1 or LDLo are ingested/resorbed. On the other hand, even a LD99 dose must not be inevitably lethal in an individual.
I would suggest the more appropriate and rational use of terms "estimated LD in human" (which could be anything from LD10 to LD99), or "LDLo".--
84.163.109.162
12:12, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 16:29, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
Just wanted to announce the creation of a new Toxicology Task Force under WikiProject Medicine. Feel free to come and sign up. Thanks -- Jrtayloriv ( talk) 04:06, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
The weaknesses of LD50 are adequately described in other sections. Where it was placed, this implied that the animal cruelty concerns outweighed the value of the measurement, which would be an unsourced judgement rather than a statement of fact. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.227.165.106 ( talk) 08:20, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
How was this site not a good source for the human LD50 of LSD? -- Whoop whoop pull up Bitching Betty | Averted crashes 00:09, 18 June 2011 (UTC)
seems to be a solid reference which correlates perfectly with the data the CIA produced in the 50s and 60s
121.99.56.29 (
talk)
20:09, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
This reference is a dead link . Woudl love to see an oral dose for LSD to compare with e.g. MDMA and Psilocybin. Intravenous is not relevant to LSD :( MarmotteiNoZ 02:43, 11 July 2022 (UTC)
...is Ionizing radiation in the list? Since it can't be directly compared, via mg/g, it is only confusing and offers no understanding to the article topic. I would simply remove now, but perhaps there is a good reason that I just haven't deduced, and wanted to hear it before I simply deleted that entry. Dennis Brown ( talk) 15:10, 3 August 2011 (UTC)
I started formatting the table so that it could be sorted by LD50 before I saw that it was listed in decreasing order of LD50. This should be unnoticeable for the reader, except that now about 1/3 of the values in the LD50 column will sort correctly whereas previously ~0 would. I'll leave it where it is rather than continuing to make an unnecessary change or undoing work that might be useful later.-- Wikimedes ( talk) 06:31, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
Seemed these sources are no longer working. It has stated: "The University of Oxford Department of Chemistry MSDS web resource is no longer being maintained. Since this resource provided safety information it is not appropriate that the MSDS web resource is still used as a reference resource. The manufacturers and suppliers have a legal duty to provide and maintain MSDS information for the chemicals that they sell. Please refer to the suppliers web pages for safety information and data sheets."-- Inspector ( talk) 13:21, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
source 32 directs to a webpage that does not load — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.65.96.146 ( talk) 21:29, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
IPs seem to be repeatedly incorporating a link to a cartoon. Suggest semi-protect this page to prevent this. Lesion ( talk) 14:35, 11 September 2013 (UTC)
All the references to MSDS are dead now, and it seems like they have been since 2011. Either remove the references or try provide another resource. (at this point this concerns reference numbers 7, 12, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 35, 36,37 and 40 (that's a lot)) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.189.227.94 ( talk) 03:11, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
Is there a typical probability distribution that can be derived from just the LD50 value and that works for most toxins? If so, this should be stated in the article. If not, of what value is LD50 alone? -- Mudd1 ( talk) 18:47, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
I note this article was deleted and redirected to median lethal dose, removing some content. Acknowledging the need for bold edits, by user:Emily Temple-Wood (NIOSH) who is a wikipedian in residence, deleting such significant amounts of content, and merging content needs at least some discussion on talk pages. 2001:44B8:21B:8F00:D1A0:8003:7AF8:7DA ( talk) 12:49, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
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I noticed that when sorting by LD50 it does not sort in numerical order, but instead considers each value as a character string and sorts them alphabetically. For example, 2 mg/kg is sorted as lower than 300 mg/kg. — Preceding unsigned comment added by YuliEuphemism ( talk • contribs) 18:52, 2 September 2016 (UTC)
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-- Source[17]( http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/index2.html) is outdated. Please look for another source(and proceed to fix it) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.190.174.11 ( talk) 16:37, 10 February 2018 (UTC)
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Is correct? — Preceding unsigned comment added by GianoM ( talk • contribs) 08:17, 8 September 2020 (UTC)