The substance that kills at touch

[origin]

Well, sorry for necroposting, but I've googled this question, found this topic, and since this conversation continues well into 2017, let me insert my 2 cents.

Couldn't it be just an acid mixed with any of the highly lethal toxins (ricin, potassium cyanide, botulinum toxin, or any toxin that kills in a matter of seconds upon entering the blood stream) ?
If you could combine an acid with such a toxin, and maybe add some kind of stabilizer compound to prevent the acid decomposing the toxin.

The mechanism is simple - acid burns the skin and comes into contact with the capillaries under the epidermis, allowing the toxin to enter the bloodstream.
This explains why the victim in the movie took his hand away as if he was burned. Because he was!

Might be easier to just use DMSO.

 

[DaveC426913]

...I'm sure the scientists can figure out a way to...

The Swan Song of every "Idea Guy" ever.

 

[Write4U]

You're shitting me. They dumped the most dangerous chemical agents in the world IN THE SEA?

Are you surprised? We dump everything in the sea. Why are we having thousands of dead fish washing up. Why do we have strandings of disoriented whales. Why do we have miles of toxic red blooms along the coastline, especially near river outlets. Natural causes?

Extremely toxic substances have been found in ditches along the highway where disposal trucks just stopped along the road and dumped their load in the drainage ditch. Some real sweethearts are handling our most toxic wastes.

When found out the companies get fined for negligence instead spending life for attempted murder.
As long as Big Business runs the show, there will be crimes against humanity.

 

[Michael 345]

Not exactly instant but fairly quickly and from small amounts

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Sergei_and_Yulia_Skripal

 

[JohnSoto]

In famous movie “The Jackal” (starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere) is one moment when the agent following The Jackal (Bruce Willis) touches manually the automobile covered with some mysterious substance (The Jackal sprayed this substance to the automobile’s surface) and almost immediately dies. I wonder, does such “killer” substance really exist? The substance that kills you at touch? I do not mean some acid, like Sulfuric acid that might actually kill you, however in case of this acid a lot of amount will be needed to burn your skin I mean the substance with little amount that will kill you when you just touch it

Wow, when I watched this film, I didn't pay attention to it. Great that you've seen this.

 

[James R]

This thread started in 2011, so maybe now is a good time to close it.

Also, one more word: Novichok.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Maybe I can squeeze in the last word before closure….

Also, one more word: Novichok.

Yes, that is indeed one word, but it doesn’t further the answer to the original inquiry. Novichok is a particular class of organophosphorus nerve agents. A high-dose inhaled nerve agent (Novichok or otherwise) can kill in several minutes (at quickest) to an hour. Lower-dose inhalation or other routes of exposure (ingestion, skin) may kill in several hours to days, in the absence of treatment. That scene from The Jackal could not have been an OP nerve agent.

There are numerous pharmaceutical drugs that can potentially kill within minutes through respiratory arrest if given in sufficient high (over) doses: anaesthetics (eg. propofol), analgesics (eg. fentanyl), or non-depolarising muscle relaxants (eg. atracurium). But these need to be administered intravenously. Potassium cyanide can kill in minutes but needs to be ingested.

Basically, I don’t think there is anything that can kill in several seconds through dermal exposure as depicted in The Jackal. Verdict: fiction.