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First aid for poisoning with hydrocyanic acid.

Culinary hobbies can sometimes result in poisoning if ingredients such as bitter kernels of fruit pits are in large quantities in the prepared dishes. In the nuclei of stone fruits there is a glycoside amygdalin, which, entering the digestive tract, decomposes into a group of substances, the most poisonous of which is hydrocyanic acid. Hydrocyanic acid, once in the body, causes tissue oxygen starvation (disrupts the transfer of oxygen molecules through the bloodstream). Bitter almond kernels, kernels of apricot kernels, peaches, plums, cherries, cherries and other similar fruits that have entered the body with food are especially dangerous.

Signs of poisoning with hydrocyanic acid increase after 2 - 5 hours (sometimes after 10 hours), depending on how much hydrocyanic acid has entered the body. The severity and nature of the symptoms depend directly on the number of bitter kernels eaten.

Signs of hydrocyanic acid poisoning:

In mild cases, dizziness, nausea, headache attacks, general weakness are observed, which will disappear after a few hours.
In severe cases, symptoms of poisoning are pronounced: vomiting, diarrhea, shortness of breath, cyanosis (blue lips and skin in the nasolabial triangle, blue tip of the nose, tips of fingers and toes), convulsions. Respiratory paralysis is fatal. A glass will be lethal - one and a half peeled and eaten kernels.

In addition to fruit seeds, hydrocyanic acid can be a product of heat treatment or combustion of materials made of polyurethane or nylon.

First aid for poisoning with hydrocyanic acid consists in the urgent delivery of an injured person to a medical institution, since it may be necessary to use an artificial respiration apparatus and medicinal injections (antidotes) to weaken the toxic effect of hydrocyanic acid.

At home, while waiting for an ambulance, they wash the stomach, do a cleansing enema and take a laxative salt (magnesium sulfate or sodium sulfate).

You can prevent hydrocyanic acid poisoning if you do not eat the kernels of the aforementioned fruits, do not replace normal nuts with them, do not boil jams and compotes from whole fruits with seeds. Do not make wine from pitted fruits. Do not decorate cakes, pastries with apricot kernels and bitter almond kernels, do not add such kernels, fried and chopped, to baked goods and other culinary dishes. For the sake of the health of loved ones, it is not worth replacing allowed kernels of nuts with kernels of the described fruits.