My favorite headline of the week came from the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose man accused of poison plot. What did he do? Put ricin in Adrian Peterson's and Christian Ponder's food after the Vikings beat the 49ers. Or maybe gassing the Republican headquarters. After all it is California in an election year. But no such fun. As with most plots this one involves love, money and nursing homes.
It just happens that an older gentleman's girlfriend is living in a nursing home. In order to gain control of her finances he tried the age-old trick of poisoning her. Fortunately, he picked the wrong poison. He snuck her bottles of water that had chlorine added to them and encouraged her to drink. The nursing staff eventually found a bottle that smelled like pool water. The police were notified and the poisoner is now in jail.
Chlorine is in our water and used to keep our pools clean. We use it to disinfect counters and whiten clothes. So what's the deal? As with everything else, "Poison is in everything and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy." In the case of chlorine it is the concentration that makes the poison. Very dilute chlorine, as in pool water, will not do much when ingested. Your kidneys do a good job of handling it. But concentrated chlorine is corrosive and can cause severe oral and esophageal burns. This victim was checked out at an ED and returned to her nursing home.
Poison plots, love and money. The story that always has a new chapter.
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