eli5: On the packaging of toilet cleaner and an article on mouthwash says that if ingested, do not induce vomitting, why is this? Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of as much of the harmful liquid as possible? What harm can happen if vomitting is induced?
In: 1821
it damages the esophagus a second time on the way back up, plus the risk of moving food through a damaged esophagus (from when it went down the first time) is much higher for aspiration. ALso the mixture of stomach acid + toxin may be even worse than the toxin on it’s own (imagine swallowing a cup of raw baking soda – your stomach will be doing it’s best impression of a science fair volcano – you do NOT want that anywhere near your epiglottis…)
Actual solutions to this problem involve having the patient swallow neutralizers (e.g. activated charcoal, which EMTs will have in the ambulance) that can absorb the toxin without needing to move it out of their stomach, or by pumping the stomach with an NG tube (at the hospital) so the contents don’t touch the esophageal wall on the way out.
“Induce vomiting for toxins” is popular because in a situation with no access to medical care (e.g. wilderness survival) there are many times where the solution to an ingested toxin is to induce vomiting because that’s safer than letting it get fully digested when you run the risk analysis. Since most people only really see ingested toxins in pop media as part of wilderness survival shows they think that that’s a good idea in general, even though the risk calculation is completely different when you have access to an ambulance and a hospital long before the toxic substance will cause serious damage. ALso the toxins injested in those shows tend to be food – which are MUCH safer to vomit back up than household chemicals.
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