Poison, venom or toxin – What’s the difference?

You heard all of these terms for sure, but is there difference between them? Or are they synonyms.

Let’s find out!

Well, all of them are not something you would like to have in your body. They are basically chemicals that have negative or toxic effect on your body, cells, etc. But even though they are all quite similar there are some major differences.

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Toxins are chemicals produced by living cells or organisms that alter the normal function of another organism (in a bad way). In this sense both poisons and venoms are toxins. But what is the difference between these two.

So, the main difference is in the method of delivery. Poison is delivered to your body through touch or consumption, whereas venom is injected to your body – either with fangs, stinger or claws. Basic thing to remember here: If you bite it and you die, it’s poison. If it bites you and you die, it’s venom.

Either way you die and that is not so good. Thus, it is a good idea to always check whether there are any venomous animals in you vicinity (if you are traveling somewhere exotic for example) and also do not eat any funny looking frogs in rainforest.

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An example of venomous animal is bee. Their venom is quite mild in toxicity, but if you happen to have allergy to it you might be in quite some trouble. It is also interesting to note that it is worse to get stung by bee than by hornet or wasp, because they usually do not inject all of their venom, whereas bee does (and dies in the process). Example of poisonous animal is salamander, that secrets toxins through glands in skin and behind eyes.

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In my home country – Slovakia, we have these salamanders even though they are quite rare. Overally we do not have many venomous/poisonous animals, no evil spiders or snakes. Even though there is one type of mountain snake that is really dangerous. Its name Vipera berus - the European viper. These snakes are not longer than 1m and bear a specific zig-zag marking. Their venom is very potent, but usually not sufficient to kill human. But you never know, so be careful while visiting Slovakian mountains.

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So, hopefully you did learn something new today in this short article. If you enjoyed reading it, then support me with upvote or comment (I like both).

Have a great day!