Chemical safety

Lecture power point

Poisonous and Toxic
Poisonous (adjective) describes any substance, natural or
manufactured, that is harmful or deadly to living cells, even in
small quantities.
Toxic (adjective) refers to poison that is produced naturally by
living things, but people often use ‘toxic’ to describe any
substance that is harmful or not good for you e.g. ‘toxic fumes’.
This is very common, especially in non-technical language.