Eli5 If chemicals like permethrin are considered safe, why are pesticides like Raid considered super toxic?
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The dose makes the poison, but Raid really isn’t super toxic for you
Permethrin is part of a family of chemicals called Pyrethroids and almost all bug killers and insecticides use Pyrethroid
They are neurotoxins. In tiny insects a small dose can completely disrupt the nervous system killing the bug. In larger animals like humans it takes a much larger dose to have a serious impact and we have enzymes that break down Pyrethroids and clear them out of our system so it requires a large single dose, really low exposures aren’t going to build up over time because your kidneys clear them out
Incidental exposure to pesticides is largely fine, your body clears everything out. The issues come when people start using them improperly like injecting them(idk why but they’ve done it) which gives a much higher dose and can overwhelm the system.
There are some weird exceptions to this though. Cats don’t have the enzyme so they don’t break down the Pyrethroids making them quite toxic to cats even in relatively low doses where the same dose would be fine for something like a much smaller Rat because it has the enzymes
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