Natural has nothing at all to do with safe. Nature is much better at making poisons than man. Much, much better. For example botulism toxin is the most poisonous chemical known with a mammalian LD50 of about 1.5 nanogram per kilogram. (^ Arnon, Stephen S.; Schechter R, Inglesby TV, Henderson DA, Bartlett JG, Ascher MS, Eitzen E, Fine AD, Hauer J, Layton M, Lillibridge S, Osterholm MT, O'Toole T, Parker G, Perl TM, Russell PK, Swerdlow DL, Tonat K; Working Group on Civilian Biodefense. (21 February 2001). "Botulinum Toxin as a Biological Weapon: Medical and Public Health Management" (PDF, 0.5 MB). Journal of the American Medical Association 285 (8): 1059–1070. doi:10.1001/jama.285.8.1059. PMID 11209178)
Compare that toxicity with the extreme toxicity on a nasty synthetic like sodium cyanide with an LD50 of 6 to 10 mg per kilogram! Seems like cyanide is over a million times less toxic than botulism toxin. (http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927711) Or the extreme toxicity of the nasty synthetic imidacloprid with an LD50 of something greater than 37microgram per kilogram and perhaps as great as 810 microgram per kilogram towards honey bees. Still nearly a million times less toxic than botulism. (http://ento.psu.edu/publications/are-neonicotinoids-killing-bees)
I should also remind everyone that water is a poison with a lethal dose of something like a gallon and a half drank over an hour and a half. Dose somewhat dependant on size of person, original state of hydration, salt content of water consumed, etc.
Everything is a poison at sufficient dose. That includes every single "natural" product.
Dick
" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner." Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists. "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong." H. L. Mencken
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