Medicine

In 1980, sixteen Danish fishermen were forced to jump into the North Sea after their fishing boat floundered. After about 1.5 hours in the water another boat approached and lowered a cargo net which they used to climb on board. They thanked their rescuers and they walked across the deck and went below to the galley where they were supposed to have hot drinks and warm up. Instead, all sixteen of them dropped dead.

This is true but it should be clarified that the charcoal given in emergency medical treatment is “activated” charcoal and that it is only helpful against certain types of poisons.   A dramatic example of this is the tale of Professor Touery, who in 1831 in front of his colleagues at the French Academy of Medicine ingested 15 grams of the deadly poison strychnine (that is ten times the lethal dose). He lived to tell the tale because he mixed the strychnine with activated charcoal.