Charcoal for poisonings? Yep, it was part of the cocktail. We used Actidose (r) which had 25 Gm of activated charcoal, and 48 Gm. of sorbitol, an sugar which is not absorbed, and therefore acts as an osmotic cathartic.
Using it in the field? Well, only if your kid has overdosed on aspirin or something like that. Then you are forced with trying to get the kid to drink a huge amount of foul tasting stuff. Lots of luck. We hated giving the stuff in the ER, as people would frequently spit it out or throw it up, and it got all over everything. You would be better off just carrying some syrup of ipecac, and getting the kid to throw the stuff up before it got absorbed. Then getting him to the ER quickest way.
Use it for food poisoning? I don't think so. First of all, most 'food poisoning' isn't. The condition is usually an infectious enteritis ('stomach flu'). This can be a toxigenic e. coli infection (Montezuma's revenge, etc.), or an invasive enteritis (Shigella, Salmonella, etc.). The former just requires fluids for treatment, the latter requires antibiotics (fluoroquinolones such as Cipro are favored).
Neither type of enteritis would benefit from charcoal.
Charcoal does have an adverse on the food cooked with it, in most scientist's view. This, however, is usually thought to be due to the carcinogens formed from the combustion rather than the absorptive qualities of the charcoal. Stomach cancer, for example, is decreasing in the USA, but going up in Japan. It is thought that the increased consumption of smoked food in Japan is a possible cause.
'Activated' charcoal is charcoal which has been heated, thus freeing up the binding sites. IIRC, charcoal can be reactivated by reheating, but this is an extremely rare practice of which I have no personal knowledge.
Hope this helps, Walt Welch MD
