Posted on 12/15/2004 1:25:44 PM PST by QQQQQ
NEW tests reveal the level of dioxin poison in the blood of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko is more than 6000 times higher than normal, according to the expert analysing the samples.
The concentration, about 100,000 units per gram of blood fat, is the second highest ever recorded in human history, said Abraham Brouwer, professor of environmental toxicology at the Free University in Amsterdam, where blood samples taken last weekend in Vienna were sent for analysis.
Prof Brouwer's team has narrowed the search from more than 400 dioxins to about 29 and is confident they will identify the poison by week's end. That, in turn, could provide clues for the investigation of the alleged poisoning.
"From a (chemical) fingerprint, at least you can deduce what kind of sources might have been involved," Prof Brouwer said. "The labs will ... try to find out whether it matches any of the batches of dioxins that are around, so that maybe you can trace it back to where it was ordered or where it came from."
Experts say Mr Yushchenko, whose face has been pockmarked and disfigured, has probably experienced the worst effects already and should gradually recover, with no impairment to his working ability.
The reformist candidate, who faces Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych in a repeat runoff on December 26, first fell ill after having dinner with Ukrainian Security Service chief Ihor Smeshko and his deputy Volodymyr Satsyuk on September 5.
He reported having a headache about three hours after the dinner, and by the next day had developed an acute stomach ache.
He later reported pancreatitis and gastrointestinal pain, as well as backache. He also suffered partial nerve paralysis in his face, and an inflammation of one inner ear.
About three weeks after his first symptoms, he developed the rough, acne-like rash on his face which is the hallmark of dioxin poisoning.
"It was very late before the rash started to develop, so if he had died it would have been a mystery illness of his pancreas, his liver or his gut and they would have said maybe it's some rare bug thing," said John Henry, a toxicologist at London's Imperial College.
"He would have died within a few days and nobody would ever, ever have thought of dioxins."
Prof Brouwer said the highest dose recorded so far was in a woman in Vienna, who was poisoned with dioxin in the mid-1990s. Tests showed her blood had 140,000 units per gram of fat and that didn't kill her.
"We don't actually know what the lethal dose is. The only thing we do know is there's a woman who had an even higher dose, who didn't die, so it must be higher than that," Prof Brouwer said.
Most of what is known about the health effects of acute dioxin poisoning comes from experiments on animals. Most animals would die from the levels found in Mr Yushchenko.
Dioxins - byproducts of factory manufacturing and incineration - are widespread in the environment and accumulate in the food chain. Most people in the industrialised world have some level of dioxin in their bodies. The normal level found in the blood ranges from 15 units to 45 units per gram of blood fat.
Evidence of the hazards of dioxin also comes from studies of long-term exposure, such as those who work in chemical factories, or from people involved in industrial accidents.
Studies suggest Mr Yushchenko faces an increased risk of heart attack, cancer, diabetes, muscle aches and other less severe symptoms, but it is unclear how high that risk has risen from a single poisoning.
The disfiguring acne, while not harmful to his health, may persist for decades, experts say.
"It'll be a couple of years, and he will always be a bit pockmarked. After damage as heavy as that, I think he will not return to his film star looks," said Mr Henry.
Dioxin, which settles in the body fat, lasts a long time in the body. Eliminating it quickly from Mr Yushchenko's body would likely reduce his chances of long-term ill health. One possibility is a couple of courses of liposuction, a procedure that sucks the fat out of the body.
Another option being discussed by scientists is the use of olestra, a fake fat substance used in diet food that could act as a magnet to draw the poison out of the body fat into the gut for elimination. The technique has been proposed before for the elimination of other fat-soluble pollutants.
It is interesting that there has been no known fatality from dioxine poisoning. A woman who had 140,000 units per gram of fat, 40% more than what Y. had, didn't die.
"We don't actually know what the lethal dose is. The only thing we do know is there's a woman who had an even higher dose, who didn't die, so it must be higher than that," Prof Brouwer said."
If someone wanted to kill him, one would think, they could think of a more efficient way of doing it, than a poison, which has never been fatal.
It will be interesting to find out the additional information the doctors seem to think they will be able to get, which may shed more light on the origin of the poison.
"Prof Brouwer's team has narrowed the search from more than 400 dioxins to about 29 and is confident they will identify the poison by week's end. That, in turn, could provide clues for the investigation of the alleged poisoning.
"From a (chemical) fingerprint, at least you can deduce what kind of sources might have been involved," Prof Brouwer said. "The labs will ... try to find out whether it matches any of the batches of dioxins that are around, so that maybe you can trace it back to where it was ordered or where it came from."
Of course it's the 2nd highest dose because the highest dose would have killed him. And from what I read, he's still walking around.
You apparently didn't read the article, nor my post.
The article specifically said, and pointed out that part in my post also, that there was a case of a woman who had 40% higher dose, and she lived too. She had the highest dose known, and didn't die.
They don't even know what dose one would need to actually kill someone.
Read the article.
> Another option being discussed by scientists is the use of olestra, a fake fat substance
OK, kids, sing it along with me...
"Anal Leakage."
Bleak. There's a reason why olestra never *really* caught on...
This matter fascinates me.
We've had freepers say the KGB would never chose this poison because it would be unprofessional. If they didn't want to kill Yushchenko and merely disfigure him, I'd say they did a darned good job, whoever did it.
Now we can get an idea how lab mice feel. I wonder how the lab mice felt after feeding them all that kilos of stuff that is suppose to be bad for us in those wonderful Oreo cookies. I still eat them because I am not a lab mouse.
If that was their goal, which I doubt. The KGB didn't f*** around with half-measures, they just made sure their target was deader'n dog crap.
Either the KGB has really gone downhill, or (my favorite hypothesis) Yushchenko did this to himself, a la Kerri Dunn and the fake hate crime that she just got a year in the slammer for.
What Is Dioxin Anyway?
http://slate.msn.com/id/2110979/
What is dioxin, anyway, and why does it have such wild effects?
The term dioxin actually refers to a family of more than 70 isomers of highly toxic, man-made organic compounds—dioxins—that are byproducts of some industrial processes and waste incineration. Dioxins are fat-soluble, so they tend to accumulate in the tissues of the animals who encounter them, and it can take many years for the compounds to break down. Any person living in an industrialized country has dioxins in his or her body—we ingest them when we eat animal fats or animal-fat byproducts.
It's unclear how harmful these low doses could be. Some animals begin to show symptoms of poisoning when they're given doses only two or three times the level of dioxins in the average person's body. ...(snip)
At higher concentrations, though, there is no doubt about its severity: Dioxin poisoning can cause organ disease, an increased risk of cancer and heart attacks, a suppressed immune system, hormonal imbalances, diabetes, menstrual problems, increased hair growth, weight loss, and, most obviously, the facial cysts known as chloracne. No one really knows how dioxins create this rash of maladies. Chloracne, for example, seems to be the result of an excess growth in cell linings that leads to the production of more facial oils—i.e., a volcanic acne breakout—(snip)
Because some isomers of dioxin can have half-lives longer than seven years, significant amounts of poison could remain in Yushchenko's system for the rest of his life, in effect continually poisoning him and leaving him permanently disfigured. But it is also possible that his symptoms could clear up within a year or two.
Another feature of the poison is that it takes a long time for the symptoms to show up—one reason Yushchenko's malady was not diagnosed earlier is that his chloracne took several weeks appear. The long onset time, however, means it is less likely that Yushchenko could have been poisoned only one night before he fell ill, when, as has been widely noted, he dined with the head of Ukraine's security service.
(snip)
I respect what you say...if he were crazy, but he doesn't appear crazy to me; therefore, I can't go along with it. Just my thoughts.
Mr Yushchenko....first fell ill after having dinner with Ukrainian Security Service chief Ihor Smeshko and his deputy Volodymyr Satsyuk on September 5. He reported having a headache about three hours after the dinner, and by the next day had developed an acute stomach ache.
It's sort of a no-brainer ain't it?
Environmentalists unintentionally saved the Ukranian presidential candidate. Someone apparently tried to poison Ukranian presidential candiate Viktor Yushchenko with dioxin. But why would anyone use dioxin as a poison? A heavy dose of dioxin may gradually cause a very bad case of chloracne, a condition which is transient. If it's true that someone tried to poison Yushchenko with dioxin, then it must be assumed that the miscreant had been duped by environmentalist propaganda, which claims either that dioxin is "the most toxic manmade substance" or "one of most toxic substances known to man." Either way, such propaganda is demonstrably wrong. Dioxin, in fact, is not terribly toxic to humans -- remember the lesson that JunkScience.com taught Ben & Jerry's! Environmentalists have always been lousy scientists -- Yushchenko is living proof. --Steve Milloy (Junkscience.com)
Coincidence?
Sounds like a very lucky man.
I hope he recovers.
Great post, Thanks. Interesting and informative.
Now I'm left wondering who ordered the hit.
Yeah, I'd say that would about do it. I bet one would find a pattern of such poisonings over the course of these guys' careers. Easy to cover up when everyone must be loyal to Party and State.
Same old KGB.
"Mokroe Delo."
(Wet affairs.)
Crazy like a fox, perhaps.
"Ukrainian Presidential Candidate Dosed with Lethal Poison!"
That would be the headline. It would not be reality--dioxin, to date, is not lethal--but the headline would be there, and everyone would blame the perfidious commies in Russia.
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