YOUR HEALTH: HERE'S HOW
Stafford, Jane
YOUR HEALTH: Here's How By JANE STAFFORD; IF you have been in the habit of using boric acid solution for an eye wash or boric acid powder or ointment for burns and skin irritations, you probably...
...IF you have been in the habit of using boric acid solution for an eye wash or boric acid powder or ointment for burns and skin irritations, you probably should consult your physician before continuing such use...
...ANTU has two remarkable features: 1. It acts almost exclusively on rats, leaving humans and most other species unharmed...
...The wisest course for the layman is to use it only when and as his doctor advises it...
...Many cases of ac-| cidental poisoning with boric acid have I been reported, he points out...
...Boric acid is called "a dangerous drug of little value" in a report by Dr...
...as a dust, either pure or mixed with flour, on floors and runways...
...Credit for the discovery of ANTU as a rat poison, however, goes to Dr...
...E. H. Watson, of the University of Michigan Medical School, in the Journal of the American Medical Association...
...Curt P. Richter, of the Phipps Psychiatric *Slinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore...
...McClosky, M. I. Smith, and R. D. Li Hie of the National Institute of Health...
...2. It kills rats in an unusual way, causing a dropsy of the lungs so great that the animals are drowned in this fluid from their own bodies...
...Discovered through taste tests'in a psychology laboratory, ANTU has been a closely guarded secret during the war...
...Wm.T...
...The word ANTU is made of the initial letters of the rat poison's chemical name, alpha-naphthyl thiourea...
...Both the [ powder and the solution have caused j death when accidentally given in food...
...It is a fine gray powder with very little odor or taste...
...An American Medical Association report last July recommended boric acid powder as a safe home remedy for athlete's foot...
...A warning against the use of boric acid ointment or solution on burns was given about a year ago by a group of Navy medical officers...
...First inkling that security restrictions had been lifted came with publication here in the U. S. Public Health Service's Public Health Reports of a scientific study by Drs...
...Large scale field trials in Baltimore, showed that it can produce results very rapidly when properly used...
...as a dust on the surface of water where rats are likely to drink...
...Compared to other rat poisons, ANTU turned out to be twice as poisonous as thallium sulfate and more than 100 times as poisonous as arsenic trioxide and fortified red squill on -the basis of the sizes of the killing dozes of each...
...New, Powerful Rat Poison Developed WASHINGTON—ANTU, a rat poison so powerful that one pound could kill 300,000 rats but which is not dangerous to humans, will soon be available to the pub...
...It is the only substance known to produce an edema, or dropsy, that is limited to the lungs...
...Enough boric acid to produce poisoning can be absorbed from a 10 per cent boric acid ointment, they found...
...or blown as dust into rat holes and burrows with standard dust pumps used in rat eradication...
...Besides these cases, there have been | other poisonings from boric acid when it was used in ointment or powder at the direction of a physician...
...Doctors may advise boric acid for certain conditions...
...as a spray or dust on fruit or vegetables such as cut-up apples, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and the like...
...For rat eradication, ANTU can be used mixed with finely ground corn or wheat...
...Since that time boric acid preparations have been banned from the children's ward of this hospital...
...A four and one-half months old baby boy died of this poisoning at the University of Michigan Hospital when boric ointment was used to treat his eczema...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 41
