Why? Do the humans On Scadrial not get sick from swallowing metals

[Blue-phoenix186]

Why? Do the humans On Scadrial  not get sick from swallowing metals I get it the magic system lets them use metals and even if it lets them digested swallowing metals is very dangerous and I’m pretty sure if a regular person done it they would die so like is there something different about their bodies?Did the Lord ruler or Ruin and preservation make them like that or can everyone in the cosmere just casually swallow metal

[Treamayne]

11 hours ago, Blue-phoenix186 said:

Why? Do the humans On Scadrial  not get sick from swallowing metals? I get it the magic system lets them use metals and even if it lets them digested swallowing metals is very dangerous and I’m pretty sure if a regular person done it they would die so like is there something different about their bodies?Did the Lord ruler or Ruin and preservation make them like that or can everyone in the cosmere just casually swallow metal?

Metal poisoning is mentioned in the books, but not shown in the books - mostly because heavy metal poisoning takes a long time. There is a combination of things happening here though:

1. In the Cosmere, Manifestations of Investiture (Allomancy, Feruchemy, Surgebinding, etc) tend to have required secondary powers that allow the user to make use of the power (Atium expanding the mind so that the Allomancer can process the information from Atium Shadows, F-Iron strengthening the body so it isn't crushed by tapping too much weight, etc). In this case, there is some resistance to Metal Poisoning for Allomancers.
2. In the Cosmere, matter energy and investiture are the same thing (fundamentally - like matter and energy IRL) so when a metal is "burned" it is being changed from physical matter into Investiture (including the minute traces absorbed into the bloodstream) and since it is no longer a metal, it will no longer cause poisoning.

WoBs:

Spoiler

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Brandon Sanderson

Metal vials. People may wonder why Allomancers use them. Why ingest only small bits of metal, which could run out on you? There are a couple of reasons for this.

First off, you don't want to eat too much metal because, simply put, it's poisonous. Kelsier talks a little bit about this in book one, and it's given token nods from characters throughout the series. I don't do a whole lot with it–dying from metal poisoning isn't the type of extended disease you tend to deal with in a novel that only covers a few months time, like this one.

The second reason for metal vials is more simple. Allomancers with the right powers can Push or Pull on sources of metal–the larger the metal source, the harder the Allomancer can Push on it. So, little flakes of metal make a terrible Anchor, and so if you're caught wearing your vials, you aren't giving much of an advantage to your enemies.

The Well of Ascension Annotations (Sept. 12, 2007)

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Questioner

Aluminum, when you burn aluminum, does it actually destroy the metals or just take away their power?

Brandon Sanderson

It destroys the metals.

Questioner

Same with chromium?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Questioner

So it actually gets rid of the metals?

Brandon Sanderson

It actually trans--  It does a--  matter, energy, investiture are the same things in the cosmere.  You have some sort of transfer happening relating to those things.

Questioner

The question sort of relates to metal poisoning--

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, you would not get metal poisoning after that.

Calamity Seattle signing (Feb. 17, 2016)

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rederel

Now i'm morbidly curious whether u/mistborn has considered it [cadmium poisoning] while writing his books.

Brandon Sanderson

I have, actually. Though I had to consider it for other metals first. I decided that allomancers are immune to these kinds of effects--they're just physiologically different in that regard.

General Reddit 2021 (June 11, 2021)

 

Edited February 26 by Treamayne
SPAG/Formatting