At 07:18 PM 8/29/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>It doesn't matter what the cause of death is, just the amount of
>bee venom that it takes to kill an average person.

With bee stings there is a great deal of variation depending on location of
stings on the same individual especially when considering normal reactions
or even mild allergies.  A swollen hand, while painful, is not life
threatening like a swollen throat caused by the same amount of poison.  So
it becomes a complicated picture considering method of application
(injection,stings, crystalline dust, etc.), location of application, and
even the current condition of the individual (stress, other alergens in the
system, etc.).  So even if an LD50 was known, it would be of little use to
asses an individuals risk.  LD50 values are a good measure with large
populations, but are of little when applied to individuals, and even less
under widely varying conditions, at least with things as variable as bee
stings.

-Tim

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