Stories related to: poison

An Illinois man busted trying to buy enough puffer fish toxin to kill dozens of people had been seeking to hire a hit man on the internet to kill a mystery woman, reports the Chicago Tribune . The financial planner sent emails to people offering $8,000 for the murder, authorities said. He was arrested yesterday when police found six empty vials of the deadly puffer fish neurotoxin in his home. More »

An Illinois man has been arrested for possession of a deadly neurotoxin found in puffer fish, reports CNN. Authorities were alerted after the man, claiming to be a doctor, attempted to purchase a significant amount of tetrodotoxin from a New Jersey lab. The poison—1,200 times more deadly than cyanide—can prove fatal to consumers of puffer fish if the delicacy is not prepared properly. More »

For decades scholars have debated whether Napoleon, who died in exile on the island of St. Helena in 1821, was poisoned with arsenic by his British captors; as recently as 2002 a biographer wrote that there was "nothing improbable about the hypothesis." But now a team of Italian scientists has conducted a detailed analysis of the French emperor's hair that seems to disprove the theory. More »

One of Japan's prized delicacies is having an identity crisis: fugu, the pricey puffer fish that's poisonous unless prepared correctly, now has a farmed cousin that's harmless, the New York Times reports. But gourmands looking forward to eating fugu liver—the most delicious and potentially deadly part of the fish—are being thwarted by the fugu industry, which is fighting to keep a ban on the livers, even from detoxed variety. More »

The man at the center of the Las Vegas ricin investigation regained consciousness today, although he remains hospitalized in critical condition, the Associated Press reports. Roger Bergendorff, 57, had been in a coma since Feb. 14; he has already been questioned by FBI agents about the toxin—considered a "biological weapon"—found in his hotel room. More »

FBI agents yesterday searched the former Utah home of a man clinging to life after apparent ricin poisoning in his Las Vegas hotel room. Neighbors within a two-block area were evacuated but were later allowed to return to their homes.  Local residents described the man as a mild-mannered, down-on-his-luck loner who could be inexplicably vindictive at times. "I never felt comfortable around him," said one neighbor. More »

The authorities who discovered ricin in a Las Vegas hotel room also recovered firearms and an “anarchist-type textbook” with an earmarked entry about the lethal toxin, CNN reports. The 57-year-old man whose room contained the poison remains hospitalized in critical condition and unable to speak with investigators, but seven others checked as a precaution tested negative. More »

A man who stayed in a Las Vegas hotel room where ricin was found yesterday has been hospitalized for 2 weeks after exposure to the toxin and is in critical condition, CNN reports. A friend retrieving his belongings discovered the ricin. "We don't know who it belongs to or why it would be here at this time," said a police captain. More »

Mental decline is widely considered an unavoidable aspect of aging, but a slew of recent studies link reduced functioning in the elderly to past lead exposure, the AP reports. Common pollutants aren't singlehandedly responsible for memory loss or tremors. But breathing or ingesting lead, pesticides, or mercury early in life can trigger these symptoms of old age prematurely. More »

The Russian businessman accused of using radioactive polonium-210 to poison a critic of controversial President Vladimir Putin is trying to dodge prosecution by running for parliament, the London Times reports. The Kremlin has already refused to hand Andrei Lugovoi over to British officials, saying it would violate the Russian constitution. But if Lugovoi becomes a member of the Duma, he would also be immune to domestic prosecution. More »

Two scientists may be fishing cancer cures out of an abandoned, poisonous lake, Wired reports. Don and Andrea Stierle are finding microbes in the green goup of an old Montana pit lake that don’t exist anywhere else – and happen to make compounds that inhibit a lung cancer and an ovarian cancer. So far Big Pharma hasn’t taken enough notice to fund a full investigation of the underwater slime.  More »

Five female roommates were seriously poisoned yesterday after a carbon monoxide leak in off-campus housing at Virginia Tech sickened 19 people. Two of the women remained in critical condition and three were listed as serious.The accident was yet another blow for the school which yesterday dedicated a memorial to 32 victims killed by a campus gunman in April. More »

The man Britain has charged with killing former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko says that British Intelligence is behind the poisoning. At a dramatic news conference yesterday, Andrei Lugovoi, also former KGB, claimed that Litvinenko was a British agent who was killed by his handlers. And he accused Boris Berezovsky, a Russian expat critical of Putin, of being complicit. More »

The murder mystery that cast a shadow over international cricket is deepening. A BBC investigation claims Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer, found strangled to death last month, was also poisoned. "It now seems certain that he had already been rendered helpless—leaving him unable to fight back," BBC's Adam Parsons reports. More »