What is the difference between Toxic and Poisonous?

When you say “poison,” you are referring to a type of chemical substance that can be found in different living organisms. There are some living organisms that can release certain types of poisons in order to protect themselves from being eaten or from being consumed by other animals.

When you say that an animal is poisonous, you mean to say that the substance that the animal has, has a high level of toxicity. When you say toxic, you are referring to any substance that may not be necessarily made by living things. It can refer to anything that may cause you to harm when you come in contact with it.

Poisonous and toxic basically refers to anything or substance which would cause hazard or harm to human, animals, and so on. The two terms are used in place of each other. Toxic can be defined as a condition of a substance and to which degree it can inflict damage to humans or some other organism or system. In some usage, toxic is used to refer to the biological organisms and some other organisms that are not biological. While poisonous seems to be more allegorical. It is used to refer to substances that would disturb organisms in a way that would be harmful. Poison gives the implication of a high rate or level of toxicity. Although every substance has the potentiality of being poisonous if it is taken in heavy dosage. Poison is only used to refer to the biological organisms, unlike toxic which is used to refer to both living and non-living organisms.

There are a lot of things that are considered to be “toxic” that can naturally be found in nature. When you say “toxic,” this may mean that it is bad for the body. It may be produced naturally by living things but some may produce it more because of the things that they are exposed to. When you say “poisonous,” this may be something that has been manufactured although it may also be naturally occurring in nature. Getting exposed to something that is poisonous will have adverse effects on living things. Take note that some poisonous materials can be deadly even in small quantities. It might be easier to get rid of toxic substances.

Some may get confused with the meanings of toxic and poisonous, with most people thinking that these are the same. When you say toxic, this means that they can be biological or non-biological components or substances that will definitely hurt a lot of people and other living things, especially when they come in contact with these toxic substances. Poisonous, on the other hand, means that it will usually cause a disturbance among the different organisms in different ways. For example, there are some poisons that will have the ability to make it harder for some people to speak or to move. Some would cause a slow and agonizing death, while there are also others that will work fast.

Toxic and poisonous are two terms that are used most of the time interchangeably. This is because both terms have similar meanings, and they are often considered as synonyms. Toxic and poisonous are used mostly to describe certain substances that are harmful to health or lethal when they are consumed or ingested through whatever means. These substances are capable of causing damage to the body system.

Some of them exist naturally, especially in some animals such as snake, scorpion, etc. whereas other poisonous or toxic materials are produced artificially. In the case of toxic substances, they can affect both biological organisms as well as non-biological organisms. At times, the word toxic is used to refer to people who are extremely dangerous to deal with. On the other hand, the word poisonous is used mostly to describe substances that are lethal to biological organisms. We can conclude that the word poisonous is narrower in definition compared to toxic.