Re: Colchicine

From: Sean Barry (sjbarry@ucdavis.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 27 1999 - 09:20:31 PDT


Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 09:20:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Sean Barry <sjbarry@ucdavis.edu>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2730$foo@default>
Subject: Re: Colchicine

On Tue, 27 Jul 1999, Richard Jenkins wrote:

> Live rattlesnakes are probably a tad more dangerous than colchicine
> which is an established and effective treatment for acute gout, albeit
> with a good range of side-effects.

If you mishandle a rattlesnake and are bitten, you stand only a 50% chance
of being envenomated and less than a 0.5% chance of dying from the bite.
Your chances of becoming seriously ill from mishandling colchicine and
similar mutagens are much greater, up to 100% for serious exposure. The
use of dangerous materials for treating specific diseases is
widespread--chloramphenicol, which causes a fatal form of anemia, was for
decades the only specific treatment for several Rickettsial diseases, and
the various chemotherapy agents are all quite toxic, lethal if used at the
wrong dosages. I suspect that when a better treatment for gout emerges,
colchicine will become a memory rapidly.

If you insist on handling materials like colchicine, best receive proper
training in handling, storage, and disposal first.

Selective breeding....

Sean Barry



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