RE to Jim 3975 - Strong contamination with ethidium bromide

In article <[Only registered users see links. ]>, ChenHA <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote:

There was a case somewhere on West Coast (Berkely?). Bunch
of people got poisoned from spiked coffee. There was a note in Science
about it at some point.

DK

BTW, coffe *contains* acrylamide. And as much as many scientists take
in of that...

[Only registered users see links. ]

> I do

Most of these attempts probably never are uncovered, especially when
the victim doesn't drop dead instantly. Maybe that is the reason why
eating and drinking is prohibited in most labs?

I remember an incident that happended in a german university
(Regensburg) while I was studying there: A cracked up diploma student
in the physics department wreaked havoc as he (sort of deliberately)
spilled a large amount of thallium bromide powder (heavy metal,
neurotoxic, much more than lead) in a hall that is used for large
experiments. The area was closed for weeks for decontamination, tons
of (of course horribly expensive) equipment had to be thrown away and
probably everyone also discarded their coffee stocks as thallium
bromide looks the same. Not to be repeated

Wo

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:06:01 GMT, [Only registered users see links. ] (DK)
wrote:


Yes, this is probably the article -

[Only registered users see links. ]

Don't know what happened though with the inquiry or if the people
involved suffered any permanent damage.

Considering how many people have used coffee for poisoning (strong
enough to mask unpleasant taste), perhaps it's best not to drink
coffee in lab meeting.

ChenHA wrote:

I ran into one of the guys in that lab at a meeting a few months after
the incident, and at that time he had no symptoms.


One of the labs I was in once had beer at lab meetings.

Nick

--
Nick Theodorakis
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contact form:
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"Nick Theodorakis" <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in message
news:73Ibi.3322$[Only registered users see links. ].prodigy.ne t...

we used to have beer and sometimes pizza... but the lab meeting was not _in_
the lab, it was in a seminar room.

Jose

Am 08.06.2007, 21:37 Uhr, schrieb DK <[Only registered users see links. ]>:



IIRC DMSO is actually used in ointments for sports injuries. Although it
results in a really bad taste once it penetrates your skin. Was there not
once a mass hysteria amongst health care workers when a patient breathed
out DMSO and everybody thought they would die?

What one should avoid though is dissolving toxic chemicals like PMSF in
DMSO, propanol is the safer alternative.

Am 11.06.2007, 14:15 Uhr, schrieb ChenHA <[Only registered users see links. ]>:



Some years ago a couple of mCi of 32P ended up in a departmental coffee
urn somewhere. Created some stirr in the media, too. Fortunately, there is
a big gap between thinking somebody is "a most tiresome fellow" and
actually killing them.

I do remember a case in Germany though where a highschool science teacher
killed his wife by lacing her jam with a strongly carcinogenic chemical
that was not publically identified. Even used school funds to pay for the
stuff. The issue came up only because his wife thought it strange how he
urged her to eat from that particular jam. But by that time it was too
late. Can you imagine giving witness testimony in the trial of your own
murderer?