What is the fastest working and most poisonous substance ever known to
mankind. I would like to know hos fast the fastest posion works, how
long time it takes to kill a human being.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 21 Apr 2004 06:16 PDT

Fastest working and most poisionous are necessarily the same thing.
One compound might drop you like a rock the minute it touches your
lips while another, in a dose only the size of a speck of dust, might
kill you over time because of this one microscopic exposure.

tutuzdad-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 21 Apr 2004 06:46 PDT

I'm sorry, that should have read: "Fastest working and most poisionous
are NOT necessarily the same thing."

tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by swedan-ga on 21 Apr 2004 07:59 PDT

I would like to know which poison that can kill a human being fastest.

The reason is because i watched "Oz" where they got a jar full of some
white powder. When they opened it they died in a couple of seconds. It
occured to me that I didn't know however that was realistic or not.
Therefore I would like to know.

VX is some pretty wicked stuff according to this website:

http://cfrterrorism.org/weapons/vx.html

then there's:
Sarin
Anthrax
Ricin

and just for comparison between VX and Sarin..stolen from the website listed above:

How does VX compare to sarin gas or mustard gas?
Since VX and sarin are both nerve agents, they have similar effects on
the body. But VX is about a hundred times more deadly than sarin when
absorbed through the skin and about twice as deadly when inhaled.
Moreover, sarin is volatile, evaporates at about the same rate as
water, and is deadliest when inhaled, while VX is oil-based, extremely
adhesive, and long lasting.

Various types of neutronic exposure cause instant cell death. 

Or

Ricin is one of the most poisonous naturally occuring substances known.

An the list goes on.

As tutuzdad-ga said, quanity and means of exposure play a big roll in
the susbstance.

X

Palytoxin is considered the most toxic organic poison known to humankind. 
http://www.chem.orst.edu/ch331-7t/ch334/MOTD116.htm

More interesting is which one is the fastest, that is which one that
has the fastest effect on the body (even if not deadly).

Here is a link to a comparison table from the US Army Medical Research
Institute on Infectious Disease:
http://www.usamriid.army.mil/education/bluebook/appxi.pdf

It is a table showing the comparitive lethality of various toxins
(derived from living organisms) and chemical agents (synthetic
poisons).  Botulinum toxin is at the top with an LD50 (Lethal Dose-50,
the amount which would kill 50% of people who recieved it) of .001
micrograms/kg.  Note Palytoxin only comes in 7th on the list, ricin at
12th, VX at 18th and Sarin at 23rd.  Anthrax is not on the list as it
is not a toxin, but an infectious organism.

And yes, the botulinum toxin is the same as Botox, which is routinely
injected into wrinkled faces - hope they got the dilution right!

In terms of speed, that is a harder question to answer, since it
depends greatly on dose, route of administration, medical support
available, etc.  Botox kills by paralysis of the respiratory muscles,
so if good medical support is available the patient can survive,
although it will require months in the ICU on a ventilator, until the
effects wear off. It also depends on how you define death, whether it
is the cessation of breathing, heart beat or brain activity.  Cyanide
can cause convulsions and cessation of breathing within a minute or
two, followed by brain death within 4 to 8 minutes, and there are
probably others that may be a bit faster.  Botox, on the other hand
can take hours to days to cause respiratory failure.

Having read the clarificaation, this sounds like dramatic license.  If
death occurred after simply opening the jar, without touching or
ingesting the substance, than it had to have been a respiratory route.
 Few toxins exist as a powder with a high enough vapor pressure to
exert much effect that quickly.  The nerve agents, for example, are
generally liquids which give off vapors.  Phosgene is a solid that can
have significant vapor given off, but it does not kill that quickly. 
Of course powders can be designed that are readily dispersed and
inhaled, as we know from the anthrax attacks.  Anthrax itself is out
of the question, because it kills slowly, over days to weeks.
For the toxin to kill quickly, it would have to be something which
could exist as a dry powder that could easily be dispersed, yet would
rapidly dissolve inside the lungs and be absorbed quickly.  I can't
think of anything that would do this, though I am not a toxicologist.

here's another list of bad stuff:

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blpoison.htm

Note this list differs a little from the previous list.  As you can
imagine, it is not easy to determine the exact minimum amount needed
to kill humans.  The studies required to determine this accurately
would not pass most ethics review boards.  Still doesn't discuss how
fast they kill though.

POTASSIUM CYANIDE - KILLS WITHIN A FEW SECONDS WHEN TASTED