Do cyanide pills kill as quickly as in the movies? Perhaps. If it is the right kind of cyanide, it can kill in about 2 to 5 minutes.
There are several different types of cyanides and they can be found in liquid, solid, or gas form. Cyanide is a group of chemicals that have a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. That means it has six bonding electrons instead of two and is much stronger than a single-bonded atom. Cyanide is produced naturally by some bacteria, fungi, and algae. It is also present in the seeds and stones of some fruit. Apricot stones, peach stones, and apple seeds, for example. This has evolved as a protection method to stop animals from eating the seeds. Cyanide gives the seeds a very bitter taste. Animals eat the fruit, which tastes good, but don’t chew the seeds because they don’t like the taste. They swallow the seeds whole and then defecate them out whole later, which lets the plants spread. The cyanide in these is minute, though. You’d need to eat 200 apple seeds to see any risk. Cyanide gas is also produced by internal combustion engines and by cigarette smoking.
We have probably only heard of cyanide in relation to poisoning, but it actually had a number of other uses. Cyanide is used in gold and silver mining because it can dissolve them. Gold or silver ore is mixed with cyanide. The gold or silver dissolves, becomes a liquid, and flows away. The gold or silver are then recovered from the solution. It is also used in some medical tests and sometimes to rapidly reduce blood pressure. It has other uses as well.
Cyanide was first isolated in 1782. It is unknown when its harmful effects were first discovered, but it was first used as a poison in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 to 1871. Napoleon III had his soldiers dip their swords in a cyanide compound before battle. There is speculation that the Roman Emperor Nero may have used a cyanide compound, but there doesn’t appear to be any evidence for that. The most famous use of cyanide was by the Nazis in World War 2. The Nazis used Zyklon B, which contains hydrogen cyanide in their mass murder of the Jews during the Holocaust. It has been used in the execution gas chambers of America as well.
What does cyanide do in the body? When you breathe or ingest cyanide, it gets into your bloodstream. There, the liver begins to turn the cyanide into thiocyanate. This is a harmless chemical and gets removed from the body in urine. That is why small doses of cyanide are not harmful. If the amount of cyanide goes over about 1 mg/L, the liver cannot remove it fast enough. The cyanide molecules that are still in the body are tiny and they are spread around the body extremely quickly. They end up in muscles and it blocks the cells from producing ATP. ATP is vital for muscle cells to use oxygen to make energy. Without it, the muscles cannot function. The diaphragm and the heart are two of the most important muscles in the body. If they cannot use ATP, they shut down, and that means we cannot breathe or circulate blood. Death from cyanide poisoning is fairly fast because it comes from asphyxiation or cardiac arrest.
So, do cyanide pills kill as quickly as in the movies? Cyanide gas is the most dangerous form of cyanide because it can get into your blood stream the fastest. When we breathe in a gas, it is automatically absorbed into the bloodstream from our lungs. Cyanide gas starts to work pretty much as soon as we breathe in and the time to death is basically how long a person can survive without breathing or blood circulating. A cyanide pill would not be as fast because food and thing we ingest take longer to reach the blood stream. It would probably take about 15 minutes for a cyanide pill to kill someone. One thing that the movies don’t show is how appalling of a death it must be.
There are antidotes to cyanide, but they have to be given extremely quickly. Unless you are already near the hospital, it is unlikely to be of any use. The antidotes are usually kept close by for people that work with cyanide, such as in the mining industry. Oxygen is usually given to keep the body oxygenated. Sodium nitrite and sodium thiosulfate can counteract the effects of cyanide.
So, do cyanide pills kill as quickly as in the movies? If the pill creates a gas, then they certainly do. If the pill is ingested, then it may take a little longer, but it will be fatal. It is not a good way to go, though. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/cyanide/basics/facts.asp
https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/emergency/chemical_terrorism/cyanide_general.htm
https://www.labroots.com/trending/videos/11035/the-science-behind-how-cyanide-kills-you
https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/publications/cyanide-fact-sheet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide_poisoning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide
https://www.wired.com/2013/04/oh-those-movie-spies-and-their-cyanide-pills/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2108040118