• Sludgehammer@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Ugh…

    A “toxin” is a poisonous substance produced by a living organism. While all toxins are toxic to something, not all things that are toxic are toxins. As an example caffeine would meet the definition of a toxin (poisonous to insects and mammals in sufficient doses), arsenic would not (poisonous to almost all life, but not produced by a living organism).

    Sorry for being so pedantic, but this is a pet peeve of mine.