Comment Re:water is toxic too (Score 1) 1017
But the degree of toxicity of water, with for example, cyanide, are entirely different matters. With water, it's your body's failure to maintain ionic balance in the presence of too much water, causing ionic functions within the body to fail. And, yes, that gets circular, but I feel like there is a distinction that is rather significant. Consider, by comparison cyanide, which interferes with the functioning of hemoglobin in cells, to prevent oxygenation of cells. Cyanide does it's thing under all cases. A little bit of cyanide will inhibit a little bit of cells, kills a little bit of tissue. A lot of cyanide inhibits a lot of cells, kills a lot of tissue. There's no natural bodily function that uses cyanide. It's always toxic.
Now, consider water. It's in every cell of your body. It's used in many metabolic processes, carries ions and materials around, it's used to excrete waste. It's tied to nearly every bodily function (every one I can think of). We're designed to drink it, and we're designed to tolerate a certain balance of water at all times. Too much water will kill you, but too little water is also fatal. I know that hyponatremia is called "water intoxication" and all, but referring to water as toxic does more to destroy the meaning of "toxic" than it does to shed light on the nature of "water."
It's like saying kissing someone on the cheek too vigorously will crush their skull, therefore kissing is toxic. I'm not a medical professional, and this is just how I feel about it.