Deadly Fish And Other Poisonous Things.

There was an article in the herald Sun Newspaper on June 19 about a couple of deadly critters at the Melbourne Aquarium. One was a beautiful eclectic blue poison arrow frog; whose skin oozes a toxin lethal to anything it touches. The other was the puffer Fish, which contains a poison up to1200 times deadlier to humans than cyanide, with no known antidote.

Now at first glance that sounds real scary and something for us all to be very careful of, doesn’t it? However, on reflection, your, and my, chance of even coming into contact with either of these animals in thew wild or even in captivity, is very minimal to being almost impossible isn’t it? But what about other deadly and dangerous things that we come into contact with often, that we should be aware of and even more scared of?

On the very same page and right above this picture and article of the fish on page11, was an item headlined, “Pancakes Poison Four”.

In this article 4 elderly residents of a Nursing home were accidentally poisoned. Not fatally fortunately, but still caused great pain and suffering; all because someone used caustic soda to clean some dirty fry pans and didn’t wash them properly afterwards, before someone else used the pans to make Pancakes for the residents.

A pretty basic and simple accident concerning an everyday item, one would think, wouldn’t you? However it turns out that because the dangers of caustic soda are so well known, it was in fact ‘supposedly’ banned from use in that Home’s kitchen. A wise move it would appear, but a move that someone else arbitrarily ignored, it seems. A terrible thing I am sure you agree, but how often do we do the same or similar?

Oh yes we know a certain action is wrong but of course we think we know what we are doing, so it is quite safe and responsible for us to do it, isn’t it? But somehow, something occasionally goes wrong and it all blows up like this thing, doesn’t it? And at times like that, we begin to wish we had listened and followed all the rules, don’t we?

Remember, rules are there for everyone’s safety and while they may be a pain and a needless pain at times, they are there to protect everyone, and therefore it is best to follow the rules and protect both yourself and those you serve isn’t it? What say you?