Updated: 1/16/07
Page 7: Selenium: What Is It?
(Atomic number: 34; atomic weight: 78.96; symbol: Se.)
Selenium is an essential trace element. There are claims that selenium may reduce liver disease and prevent or even cure cancer. This has encouraged some people to look to selenium as a panacea or overall health cure for many maladies. But selenium has a low threshold of toxicity. Tasteless and odorless, selenium can be toxic and kill. Click to watch A recently published article shows that selenium is easily purchased over the internet and can quickly cause death. Click to read
Selenium is often reported as one of ten heavy metals: Arsenic, Mercury, Selenium, Cadmium, Nickel, Chromium, Copper, Vanadium, Lead, and Zinc.
At trace levels, some of these elements are necessary to support life. However, at elevated levels they are toxic.
Arsenic and selenium are sometimes categorized as semi-metallic elements.
Selenium toxicity is partially dependent on the chemical state of the selenium. Selenite is more toxic than selenate, which is more toxic than selenide. This definition is based on the oxidation state of the selenium ion: Selenide (-2), selenite (-4) and Selenate (-6). Selenite is readily available as sodium selenite, selenium dioxide and selenious acid; selenate is available as sodium selenate and selenic acid. These are all water-soluble and can be easily added to food or drinks. The most toxic are the selenites, but selenates are nearly as toxic. All are readily available.
Selenium is not a controlled substance and concentrated forms are easily purchased off the internet. Selenium is used in a number of ways, including, in the pharmaceutical industry, as a supplement to animal feed, glass manufacture, ceramic finishes, photocopy drum manufacture, semi conductor manufacture, veterinary medicine, vitamin/mineral supplement manufacture, as a cancer/chemotherapy anti-dote, gun bluing solution, and in anti-dandruff shampoos.
Acute selenium toxicity is characterized by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), weakness, and convulsions, followed by pulmonary edema (fluid filling the lungs) and cardio-pulmonary arrest.
Selenium has been implicated in suicides, accidental deaths, and criminal poisonings. Click here to read how Selenium can be used as a poison.
One medical journal reports that applying one-drop of concentrated selenium to a dog’s skin caused death within hours.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a popular movie, “Lethal Vows,” about a husband, who poisoned his wife with selenium, was broadcast on the CBS network four months before Linda’s death. Click to read And just recently, the CBS police drama Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), aired an episode about two wives who killed their husbands by poisoning them with selenium. Click to read