Look at this concerning a concept called hormesis. At low levels poisons may actually be helpful! See also this at Nature Science News. You won't see this in the press any time soon.
See the chart above. Hypothetical curves depicting (a) threshold, (b) linear non-threshold, and (c) hormetic dose-response models using cancer (number of tumours per animal) as the endpoint. Chart from Nature 421, 691-692 (2003).
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