You injected what into your face?

              Botulinum toxin is the most lethal protein known to man. Botulinum toxin is produced by Clostridium botulinum, an anaerobic gram positive spore forming rod. C. botulinum and its spores are found widely distributed in nature. There are seven types of C. botulinum based on the form of the toxin they produce. Toxin A, B, E, and F are the only ones that have been associated with causing human botulism. The botulism toxin is a very potent neurotoxin formed during bacterial growth. Only 75ng is enough to kill a person of about 165lbs. A single teaspoon of botulinum toxin is enough to kill about 1.2 billion people. The toxin functions by blocking motor nerve terminals at the neuromuscular junction (see diagram below).   Progression of paralysis usually starts with the eyes and face and progresses downward to the throat chest and extremities. Once the diaphragm and the chest muscles become affected respiration is inhibited and without intervention this results in death. There are three common ways that you can get botulism: foodborne botulism, infant botulism, and wound botulism. The first way, ingestion of foods containing the botulism toxins is the most common and occurs after the consumption of improperly processed and inadequately cooked home preserved foods. I like to make my own salsa and when I do I usually make a lot. I preserve the extra salsa I make by canning it. There are several precautions that must be taken to ensure that I don’t kill myself with the deadly food poison botulism. The USDA gives some recommendations that I follow and these include washing food, peeling some fresh food, hot packing (this is basically boiling it before canning), adding acids (lemon juice or vinegar), using appropriate jars and lids, processing jars in boiling water or pressure canner. Key factors to reduce the growth of Clostridium botulinum include pH less than 4.6 and salt concentration from 4 to 5%. The second way to get botulism is Infant botulism. Honey is the one dietary reservoir of Clostridium botulinum that has been linked to infant botulism. If you have ever heard not to give children under 12 months honey this is why. So what do we do with such a potent toxin? Many governments around the world have tried to weaponize botulinum toxin. The U.S. along with several other contries weaponized it in response to suspicions of Nazi Germany’s biological warfare development in 1941. Biological weapons were outlawed in 1972 by the Biological weapons convention but the threat of a possible terrorist use still remains. The FDA has produced a very interesting video on the history of botulinum toxin as a biological warfare agent(see below). So what else can we do with botulinum toxin? The drug BOTOX is actually botulinum toxin type A. It has many uses some of which include: to temporarily smooth frown lines (wrinkles between the eyebrows), to control severe underarm sweating, strabismus (an eye muscle problem that causes the eyes to turn inward or outward) and blepharospasm (uncontrollable tightening of the eyelid muscles that may cause blinking, squinting, and abnormal eyelid movements) and more. For more information about Clostridium botulinum /botulism visit the following  FDA , CDC , Bioterrorism.