LONDON – New tests reveal Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko’s blood contains the second-highest level of dioxin poisoning ever recorded in a human – more than 6,000 times the normal concentration, according to the expert analyzing the samples.
Abraham Brouwer, professor of environmental toxicology at the Free University in Amsterdam, where the blood samples were sent for analysis, said they contained about 100,000 units of dioxin per gram of blood fat.
However, the concentration could prove to be even higher once results come in from a more definitive test, said Arnold Schechter, a specialist in dioxin analysis from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
The test also will show how long Yushchenko may show symptoms from the poison.
Schecter said the tests also could determine whether Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxinlike PCBs, rather than dioxins. PCBs were used in electrical transformers and as hydraulic fluid until they were banned in much of the world in the 1970s because they are so toxic and persist for so long in the environment.
Brouwer’s team has narrowed the search from more than 400 types of dioxin to about 29. He is confident they will identify the poison by Saturday. That, in turn, could provide clues to its source.
The 50-year-old reformist candidate, who faces Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych in a repeat runoff on Dec. 26, fell ill after having dinner with Ukrainian Security Service chief Ihor Smeshko and his deputy Volodymyr Satsyuk on Sept. 5. Yushchenko reported having a headache about three hours after the dinner, and by the next day had developed an acute stomachache.
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