There is a common (I hesitate to say “popular”) salt substitute called NoSalt that consists of the compound potassium chloride (which is indeed a salt, but not a sodium-based one). This compound is used in other salt substitutes as well. Curiously, this very same compound has been used on several occasions by Dr. Jack Kevorkian for euthanasia (including, if I am not mistaken, his most recent, televised one) and also in executions. It works by stopping the heart.
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Admittedly this is a sensitive question–we don’t want to give anyone ideas–but I cannot resist the natural query: how much NoSalt would one have to consume (orally) to experience cardiac arrest? The makers of NoSalt do not volunteer this information on the package. And why did Kevorkian resort to carbon monoxide when he lost his license and could no longer procure drugs, when presumably all he’d need to do was go to the grocery store, buy some NoSalt, mix it in some water, and inject it (or maybe just fix a large quantity of NoSalted pretzels)?
Then I pulled out a few reports of deaths and near misses involving potassium chloride and did some math. You know what? The amount of salt substitute needed to kill somebody, or at least put him in some serious hurt, is surprisingly small. Some cases from the medical journals:
A mother, following the instructions in Adelle Davis’s book Let’s Have Healthy Children (1972), fed her infant about three-quarters of a teaspoon of potassium chloride mixed with her breast milk. The child stopped breathing and despite intensive medical treatment died after 28 hours.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
