Have you ever stepped on a nail?

[sadpickle]

When I was a wee lad of about 10, I went for a walk in Griffith Park (Los Angeles) with my dad and brother. It was a weekend ritual. On our way out of the park I became aware of some serious irritation on my foot. At the entrance my dad stopped us and had me take off my shoe to see what was the issue. There was a large, rusty nail jammed straight into it at the arch, and it had missed my foot by mere centimeters. Considerably luck on my side.

Some years later I got a tack in my heel going barefoot in a classroom and never realized until hours later.

[jupiterb]

Never stepped on a nail, but once when I was about 9 years old I didn't notice broken glass on the floor in my mother's basement and managed to get a shard in deep between my second and third toe.  That was rather unpleasant.

[RazorHed]

YES , about 30 years ago , my left foot. We had ,years earlier, built a tree platform . It rotted and started falling . I stepped on a 2x4 with a nail and thought there might be more boards under the leaves and there wasn't anything nearby to grab for balance , so I ended up hopping up and down on the nail 3 times.   I still have a lot of trouble with that foot now

[Justas love]

I stepped on those clipboard nails, i pulled them out feeling no pain, but i was bleeding a lot

[Chibiabos]

It's pretty common knowledge in the US that tetanus is caused by rust. It literally is rust, but tetanus is the medical term.

Its a common delusion by people who don't bother doing two seconds of research.  Iron oxide (rust) isn't really toxic -- in fact iron is a key nutrient you need.

From wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetanus):

Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is an infection characterized by muscle spasms. {...} Tetanus is caused by an infection with the bacterium Clostridium tetani, which is commonly found in soil, dust and manure.

No, the moon isn't made of green cheese.  The 3rd millenium and 21st century started at midnight on January 1, 2001 -- not 2000 (because the first century ran from 1 A.D. to 100 A.D., the second from 101 A.D. to 200 A.D. -- there was no year zero).  The theory of evolution does not claim human descended from apes nor chimps.  There are a lot of common misconceptions and delusions -- much of 'common sense' is actually contradictory to reality, unfortunately.

[mumblemumble]

Erm, just going to call you out on your logic chib : Water is an essential part of the body, yet you can STILL OD on water. Iron is essential, you can also have too much.

Pretty much anything you need, can be bad in large amounts (salt anyone?)

also, while people say its a bacteria strain, I wonder if the strain NEEDS rust (or "ferris", iron nutrient) to be active, similar to how a candida fungal infection feeds off of sugars and starches , thus people who eat plenty of them  have a much harder time overcoming it. Would make sense then. Because even if technically the bacteria is the acting factor, rust would still be the CAUSE.

I've researched a little but sadly nothing comes up, sadly the diet of bacteria seems a little hard to find... But this would make sense why it has such a large association. Such a heavy association doesn't exist for no reason.

[Chibiabos]

also, while people say its a bacteria strain, I wonder if the strain NEEDS rust (or "ferris", iron nutrient) to be active, similar to how a candida fungal infection feeds off of sugars and starches , thus people who eat plenty of them  have a much harder time overcoming it. Would make sense then. Because even if technically the bacteria is the acting factor, rust would still be the CAUSE.

/Scientists/ determined its a bacteria ... but no, it doesn't need rust.  I've gotten tetanus from stepping on rocks and broken glass that had no iron in them.  Its a common bacteria outdoors ... stepping on nails that have been out a long while is a common means of infection, but the bacteria doesn't need them.

And again, Iron isn't toxic.  The fact you can overdose on something to deadly consequences doesn't make it toxic.

*sigh*  Pick up a book once in awhile.  I have yet to hear of anyone dieing from an overdose of reading or learning. :/

[milon]

Chibiabos is correct. Iron isn't the cause of tetanus. Just because it hasn't been explicitly stated (unless I'm blind today), we link rust and tetanus together because rust is a common hiding place for the tetanus bacteria. Kind of like how tap water in some countries is linked to Hep C infection - water itself isn't the cause; it's what's potentially in the water that's the cause.

[RickyMartini]

*sigh* it takes like 5 minutes to google and read up on these things, why do some people feel the need to debate and disagree over simple things that can easily be researched. As milon said, it's only a correlation that we're seeing here.

[Songleaves]

I stepped on a fish hook once but I was wearing shoes. Just going to clear up some misconceptions now about tetanus.

1. Tetanus is caused by the bacteria Clostridium tetani which is sensitive to oxygen, and can't grow where oxygen is present.

2. C. tetani can form very strong endospores, which are found in the ground and water all over the planet and can survive seemingly indefinitely. While in this form they can interact with oxygen, and bleach, and boiling water, and all sorts of things, but they cannot grow and be active.

3. In order for C. tetani to infect you it must reach a part of your body that doesn't contain too much oxygen. This is why tetanus is usually associated with deep puncture wounds, because there is less oxygen available than at the surface.

4. There is no association between C. tetani and rust. Endospores of C. tetani are commonly present outdoors, and a rusty nail is simply likely to have been present outdoors in addition to having more surface area due to the rust for dirt to accumulate upon.

5. There is no harm in the presence of iron in our cereal. As a matter of fact roughly 50% of iron that American's receive in their diet is from fortification of grains with iron. It is generally put in your food in it's uncharged, elemental form, which your body is unable to absorb. However, when exposed to the acid in your stomach it rapidly oxidizes to it's ferric form, Fe2+, which is absorbed.

6. Iron isn't needed to "make your bones strong", it is primarily used for oxygen transport and as a cofactor for redox reactions.

7. The tetanus vaccine doesn't contain a dead or inactive form of C. tetani, but rather it contains an inactivated version of the neurotoxin that C. tetani produces. Once an actual tetanus infection occurs the immune system will produce antibodies that bind to and neutralize the toxin. Because the inactivated tetanoid toxoid is so potent at stimulating an immune response, it is actually combined with other antigens in other vaccines. For instance, the conjugate Hib vaccine contains a type b capsular polysaccharide from Haemophilus influenzae that is covalently linked to the tetanoid toxoid because by itself it doesn't normally stimulate a response that leads to antibody production.

[OmG_PotatoeZ]

Not a nail but I've stepped on a banana peel when I was 6 or 7 and cracked my skull open the the hearth of a fireplace...

[AllenWL]

I stepped on a nail that was about 2.5 inches long.
It was on it's side, and no serious harm was done.

[Mechanoid Hivemind]

Me and a friend were working on his roof when i dropped the nail gun on my foot needless to say we had to have the fire department come pry me out. Waited about 2 hrs for them to get me loose. Turns out the safety switch on the nail gun went fuzzy and the spring was broken so it could be fired as a gun >.<

[Wex]

People in the past would assume tetanus to come from rust, because it was a common illnes between blacksmiths. It wasn't the cut on the rusty iron. It was the bacterium in the dirt an the animal poop (blacksmith used to iron horses).
But back then people didn't know about bacteria; still, it's one of those weird thing that people keep saying.
Tetanus isn't in the rust, it can be, but the bacterium is not exclusive of rust.

[AllenWL]

Erm, just going to call you out on your logic chib : Water is an essential part of the body, yet you can STILL OD on water. Iron is essential, you can also have too much.

Just saw this post(yes, it's really late), and got curious, so I did a little research.

Water has a LD50 of 90ml/kg.
From what I can tell, this means that if you drink 90ml of water per every kg you weigh, that has a 50% chance to kill you.
The average person weighs around 80kg.
This means an average person has a 50% chance to die after drinking 7 liters of water, or 7,000 cubic centimeters.

I have no idea what the lethal dosage of iron is, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot more than what you get from stepping on a rusty nail.