Talk:Potassium cyanide

message: I think the article should begin with chemical and physical information about potassium cyanide, instead of opening by saying that it's the most common instrument of suicide. (Incidentally, if anyone can cite statistics supporting this claim, that would help.)
rajneesh 06:12, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Suicide

message: Was cyanide really 'commonly used as rat poison'? I know there's an anti-smoking ad out there mentioning the presence of cyanide in rat poison, but AFAIK most poisons are based on anticoagulants, heavy metals, or strychnine. --Calair 00:03, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I remembered the use of cyanide for fumigating insects, just hadn't heard of it being used for rats until this article. --Calair 15:01, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Rat poison?

message: *Potassium cyanide - needs chemist to check factually dubious section. RayGirvan 21:37, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: From PNA/Chemicals

message: IPCS/CEC refers to amyl nitrite as a potential antidote, whereas the HSE discusses amyl nitrate. Are amyl nitrate and nitrite both in use as CN- antidotes, or has one of these sources goofed? --Calair 23:52, 14 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Amyl nitrate/nitrite

message: The toxicology section at cyanide now seems to be in a state to receive the information which is here and relates to cyanides in general. Does anyone object to me merging across this material? I would leave a short paragraph mentioning that KCN is poisonous as are all alkali cyanides and directing the reader to cyanide for more information. Physchim62 18:02, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, that's where it ought to be. I kept meaning to do the same thing myself, but never got around to it :-) --Calair 23:09, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

text: I heard that iron II and iron III are the points of attack of these two molecules. So one has more affinity to iron II the other to Iron III so you get a difference. Stone 07:57, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggested section merge 

message: Anybody know how you'd find Potassium Cyanide (KCN) around the house? I need it for a lab experiment.
March 6, 2006
 
: If you're qualified to work with KCN and have a legitimate reason for doing so, you should already know the proper channels for obtaining it. If you're not, I don't think giving you that information would be a terribly good idea. --Calair 09:08, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Cool, does it work?  Hello?  Hello? Just zis Guy you know? 15:13, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Question

message: Anyway, encyclopedia needs data about how to obtain various substances otherwise it would be either incomplete or censored. Potassium (or any other alkali metal) cyanide could be synthesized by direct reaction between hydroxide (KOH in this case) and hydrocyanic acid. Is there a more effective way ? -Yyy 10:24, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Synthesis

message: I reverted these edits because it looks suspiciously like copyvio, and because the material is inaccurate. For instance, it claims: "Nobody has ever lived to tell the tale — how does potassium cyanide taste?" This is false, as is the claim of instant death; there have been quite a few cases of people who ingested cyanide and survived for days afterwards, some eventually making a full recovery after treatment. 
See e.g. this article, with case reports including this one: "A 54-year-old man ingested 3 g potassium cyanide and arrived in hospital unconscious and with respiratory arrest.  The patient was resuscitated and 12 g of sodium thiosulfate was given intravenously...  After 30 min the patient breathed spontaneously, after 90 min he moved his extremities and eyes, and after 6 h he was fully alert. No sequelae were observed." --Calair 00:10, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Hindustan Times article

message: Not much to say here because KCN, due to its annoying toxicity, is not usually employed in a laboratory. It is a pain to handle and NaCN can usually be used instead (cheaper and slightly less toxic) So its a bit of an irrelevant article Stui 21:12, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Righty

message: Well, Some one told me in my chemistry class that if potassium cyanied touches your blood or got mixed with it due to some kind of wound, it start crystalizing your blood and you will die ????? was it a romur or is it true ??? wanna know that really if we got potassium cynaide got mixed with our blood due to some wound, do it harm that much that a person can die ????
Mohammad Adil 19:39, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wanna know wather it is true or not ??? 

message: In the infobox on the right, what does "solubility in other solvents" mean? What kind of "other solvents"?
And also, I find that 71.6 g/100 ml is actually the solubility in water. See:
*www.inchem.org
*www.cdc.gov
--Quest for Truth (talk) 19:41, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Solubility in infobox 

message: The photo of the KCN crystals is shown against a Euro 1 cent piece and what appears to be the tip of a writing device. People outside the EU may not be able to discern the size of the sample shown. Suggest using a photo with the crystal sample against a measurement device such as a ruler.
173.62.183.174 (talk) 21:23, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Bias / POV

message: ***UPDATE: The MSDS has been restored, as the Important Notes section states under "Effects of short-term exposure" that "The substance is severely irritating to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. The substance may cause effects on the cellular respiration. This may result in convulsions and unconsciousness. Exposure could cause death." 96.231.177.2 (talk) 12:28, 24 Oct 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  MSDS - removed as misleading. (Subsequently Restored) 

message: I have seen this sentence in this article "The moist solid emits small amounts of hydrogen cyanide due to hydrolysis, which tastes like bitter almonds". But this statement does not have any citation. So either it should be removed or the author should cite it properly with reference.
Abhilashkrishn (talk) 14:03, 12 August 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: It just seems plain vandalism, if you ask me. Engalazillo (talk) 08:37, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Taste of Potassium Cyanide 

message: Visually, does anyone know of a reliable picture for potassium cyanide crystals (ie: What they actually look like) that can be placed onto the Wikipedia page?  Are Potassium Cyanide crystals distinctive in some way?  If you look at : 
http://bioprepwatch.com/stories/510507628-chemist-sentenced-for-potassium-cyanide-possession
You see a picture that states it is a picture of potassium cyanide: 
https://jnswire.s3.amazonaws.com/jns-media/57/f5/49204/potassiumcyanide.png
Can anyone visually verify that this picture is of Potassium Cyanide.  If so, what features does Potassium Cyanide have that enable it to be tested VISUALLY?  
It is said that Potassium Cyanide produces Hydrogen Cyanide, with the Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) smelling of "bitter almonds" WHEN it is added to acids or acid salts (according to www.inchem.org/documents/cicads/cicads/cicad61.htm).  So this can be used as a test of Potassium Cyanide. 
 
Otherwise, how would one visually inspect a Potassium Cyanide crystal to make sure it is Potassium Cyanide?  
ASavantDude (talk) 18:51, 28 July 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Potassium Cyanide Crystal Powder Visual Features AND Tests for KCN 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: In this article:
A number of prominent persons were killed or committed suicide using potassium cyanide, including members of the Young Bosnia and famous personalities in the Third Reich, such as Erwin Rommel, Hitler's longtime companion Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, and Hermann Göring. 
In Cyanide poisoning article:
Cyanide, in the form of pure liquid prussic acid (a historical name for hydrogen cyanide), was the favored suicide agent of the Third Reich. It was used to commit suicide by Erwin Rommel (1944), after being accused of conspiring against Hitler; Adolf Hitler's wife, Eva Braun (1945); and by Nazi leaders Heinrich Himmler (1945), possibly Martin Bormann (1945), and Hermann Göring (1946).
--Inconexo (talk) 12:05, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hidrogen Cyanide or Potassium Cyanide? 

message: The article contained the following lines in the section about KCN toxicity:
The source for these claims was cited as John Emsley's The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison, a pop science book.  Emsley's book does contain this brief mention of potassium cyanide, which is buried in the middle of a much lengthier discussion of mercury cyanide:
Emsley does not provide any sources for these remarkable claims, which are highly implausible.
* In this section of the book, Emsley has been discussing mercury cyanide.  He claims that an acid can break the relatively strong Hg-CN bonds, freeing up both the mercury and cyanide and making the compound toxic.  This is at least plausible.  By contrast, potassium cyanide readily dissociates in aqueous solution.  There is no need for an acid to break the K-CN bonds, as there is with Hg(CN)2, and I fear that Emsley has here conflated the two cyanide compounds.
* But perhaps Emsley's claim is not that undissociated KCN isn't toxic, but rather that the CN- ion isn't toxic unless converted to HCN, as he states in his last sentence.  Such a claim is far from obvious, and accepting it requires references beyond a single factoid line in a pop sci book.
* Suppose we take this claim that cyanide is only toxic as HCN at face value.  Is it true that HCN will be formed from KCN in the stomachs of most people, but not in people who have low stomach acidity?  The pKa of HCN is 9.2, which means that below a pH of 9.2 prussic acid is mostly found as the compound HCN, while above pH 9.2 it mostly exists as the dissociated ions H+ and CN-.  The normal pH range of the contents of human stomachs is 1.5 to 3.5, so virtually all the prussic acid in the stomach of a poisoned person will be undissociated.  In order to have a significantly lower amount of undissociated HCN, Rasputin's stomach would have needed to have a pH close to 9(!), which strains credulity.
* ...and even if the toxicity of cyanide is strongly pH-dependent, presumably the relevant pH is the pH of the target sites of cyanide's action, i.e. the mitochondria of healthy cells and not the contents of the stomach.
* Finally, there is simply no corroborating evidence to indicate that Rasputin ever had a low stomach acidity.
Brkkp (talk) 19:18, 13 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed highly dubious speculation regarding Rasputin's stomach pH 

message: As a lay person I had much difficulty understanding the technical terms in article. It would be helpful if technical jargon was parenthetically defined in lay language. Hyperlinks are fine, but many times the landing article is just as technical as the original one.  Scottinkga (talk) 13:11, 19 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Too technical