This collection contains a wide variety of resources and information about Toxins, which supports the resources in the other collections.
The National Poisons Centre is New Zealand’s only poison and hazardous chemicals information centre. The Centre answers around 30 000 telephone enquires each year on its 24-hour 7-day toll-free emergency telephone service.
There are over 100 poisonous plants in New Zealand. Although deaths are extremely rare, people are still affected to some degree by the toxins produced by these plants.
New Zealand has a very small number of poisonous animals. They include spiders, some marine creatures, bees and wasps. The death rate from them is low.
The food we eat can poison us. There are over 200 known diseases that can be transmitted by food. Bacteria or viruses are the main cause of food poisoning.
Marine toxins are naturally occurring chemicals that can contaminate certain seafood such as shellfish. The Cawthron Institute has devised a way of monitoring shellfish for our safety.
In 2009, some grey side-gilled sea slugs (Pleurobranchaea maculata) were found to be toxic. This article describes the sea slug and its toxicity.
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