Nuts

Recently, a friend of mine spent the night at Sutter General Hospital after being poisoned. Two women found him crawling on the sidewalk pleading for help, and they called an ambulance.

My friend had eaten a number of raw almonds that fell off of a transport truck heading to the Blue Diamond nut processing facility here in Sacramento. The truck driver waved his arms and tried to dissuade my friend from eating the almonds, but my friend ate the almonds anyway, and that's apparently a BIG no-no.

I thought the poisoning might have been from hydrocyanic poisoning - there's a small amount of cyanide compounds in almonds, and if small children eat lots of almonds (and if adults eat even more on an empty stomach), poisoning has been known to occur.

Nevertheless, discussing the matter with co-workers who know how nuts are processed, I've discovered there are other poisoning candidates. These days, methyl bromide is no longer widely used as a fumigant, having been largely-replaced by aluminum and magnesium phosphides. These (and possibly other) chemical substances on nuts might also induce poisoning.

So, don't eat nuts off the street.

Next, reasons not to eat tomatoes that roll off of transport trucks and accumulate at interstate highway on-ramps. Tempting roadside treats in the autumn, especially in Yolo County!