10 Chemicals You Really SHOULD Be Scared Of

There's a lot of, largely unfounded, concern over the herbicide glyphosate at the moment. But what people forget is that glyphosate has largely replaced a lot of really, really horrible chemicals. Seriously, glyphosate is hearts and fluffy bunnies compared to some of these monsters, and one of the nastiest of them all has to be paraquat.

Paraquat was first synthesised in 1882, although its activity as a herbicide wasn't recognised until over seventy years later. It was first manufactured and sold by the British chemical company ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries - how's that for a colonialist name?) in 1962. It is still used today, although not in the European Union, who had the good sense to ban the horrible stuff in in 2007.

It's a funny-looking molecule - its structure bears a passing resemblance to a pair of safety goggles - but there's nothing funny about what it does. It's a non-selective herbicide which kills all green plant tissue on contact. It's also toxic to human beings and animals, causing irritation to the nose, stomach ulcers, liver and kidney failure and severe lung inflammation (ARDS).

Just one mouthful of the agricultural preparation can be fatal. Death can occur up to 30 days after ingestion. There's no antidote, although activated charcoal can be effective if taken quickly enough. Interestingly, there is a chemotherapy drug which appears to have successfully treated some cases of paraquat poisoning.

There have been many deaths from paraquat poisoning, mostly suicides. Magazine editor Isabella Blow famously committed suicide by drinking paraquat in 2007. In developing countries, paraquat is a tragically common suicide agent due to it being inexpensive and easy to get hold of.

There have also been a few high-profile murders. In 1981 British woman Susan Barber used it to poison the gravy of her husband's pie, after he'd discovered her in bed with another man. She insisted that she never intended to kill him, but she was nevertheless convicted of murder in 1982. There were also a famous series of murders in Japan in 1985 which became known as the 'paraquat murders'. No culprit was ever found - all the police were able to discover was that the deaths were caused by poisoned beverages left in or near vending machines.

But paraquat's story gets worse. Worse, you say? What could possibly be worse? Well, it turns out that low-level exposure can result in Parkinson's Disease. So even if it doesn't actually kill you, it might well leave you with a long-term degenerative disorder that begins with shaking, leads to increasing difficulty in moving, and eventually results in dementia and death.

Pass the glyphosate, someone.