It is somewhat misleading to group poisons, radioactive isotopes and viruses
Far as I can tell there aren’t any viruses in there? There’s a few bacterial toxins, but they’re… well, toxins.
Also, the grouping isn’t misleading. Not only is eg. plutonium fairly toxic in addition to giving off ionizing radiation (because it’s a heavy metal), but calculating an LD50 for something doesn’t require it to be toxic, just that some dose of it kills. There’s some µg/kg ingested (or inhaled or whatever) dose of polonium that will kill 50% of a study animal population dead, regardless of what the mechanism that kills them actually is
You are right, those aren’t viruses. But you can imagine that a virus or prion might have a very small LD₅₀. I discussed the radioactivity/toxicity in another comment, you are correct - but a tiny amount of any element can quickly kill you from decay radiation if it’s a very unstable isotope.
And yes, if you understand what LD₅₀ means, the mechanism is the confusing part. Ingesting naturally occuring uranium will not kill you primarily from radiation despite the ☢️ symbol on the infographic, and vitamin D won’t kill you if you only get it from the Sun. And I was primarily correcting the misunderstanding in the above critique, not defending everything about the picture.
Far as I can tell there aren’t any viruses in there? There’s a few bacterial toxins, but they’re… well, toxins.
Also, the grouping isn’t misleading. Not only is eg. plutonium fairly toxic in addition to giving off ionizing radiation (because it’s a heavy metal), but calculating an LD50 for something doesn’t require it to be toxic, just that some dose of it kills. There’s some µg/kg ingested (or inhaled or whatever) dose of polonium that will kill 50% of a study animal population dead, regardless of what the mechanism that kills them actually is
You are right, those aren’t viruses. But you can imagine that a virus or prion might have a very small LD₅₀. I discussed the radioactivity/toxicity in another comment, you are correct - but a tiny amount of any element can quickly kill you from decay radiation if it’s a very unstable isotope.
And yes, if you understand what LD₅₀ means, the mechanism is the confusing part. Ingesting naturally occuring uranium will not kill you primarily from radiation despite the ☢️ symbol on the infographic, and vitamin D won’t kill you if you only get it from the Sun. And I was primarily correcting the misunderstanding in the above critique, not defending everything about the picture.