Unit 4 Lesson 7

Lethal Dose

Toxicity

Lethal Dose (LD50) - amount of an ingested substance that kills 50% of a test sample of animals.

• Expressed in mg/kg of body weight
• 1 kg = 2.2 lbs

Toxicity depends on 2 qualities: amount of substance and mass of the organism

Everything can be toxic if you take in enough of it

The smaller the LD50 the more potentially dangerous

Practice Problems

2) toxicity depends on weight because the more someone weighs, the more of the toxic substance they need to be as affected as a lighter person.

 

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