Word: toxin
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...story is very frightening," said TIME Correspondent James Willwerth. What was worrying Willwerth last week was a question for which millions of Americans, from epidemiologists to the victims' families sought an answer: What microbe, fungus, toxin or other killer took the lives of more than a score of people who had been present at the 1976 annual convention of the Pennsylvania American Legion in Philadelphia? "Death here," reported Willwerth by telephone from Harrisburg, where he talked with investigating doctors, "is just as sudden and unexplained as in a crime or science-fiction story. Even for the literal minded...
...investigation indicated that at least 18 of the victims-including nine of those who died-had been given Pavulon, or pancuronium bromide, a synthetic variant of curare, the lethal plant toxin used by South American Indians to tip poison darts. Anaesthesiologists sometimes administer Pavulon to surgical patients to relax their muscles, but hospital records showed that no doctor had prescribed its use on any of the victims...
...natural substances are more lethal than the toxin of the poisonous mushroom Amanita phalloides. Commonly known as the death cap, it causes, after a day's delay, severe abdominal pain, followed by diarrhea, cramps and vomiting and finally liver failure and central nervous damage. In Europe, where mushroom collecting has long been a favorite hobby of gourmets, the hard-to-identify Amanita phalloides accounts for perhaps 95% of the dozens of deaths that occur every year from mushroom poisoning of some kind. Until recently the death cap was considered relatively rare in North America, and only a few cases...
Agency Defenders. Eventually, Gordon transferred the venom and toxin from Fort Detrick to the CIA storeroom in Washington, which held other toxic substances that were considered exempt from the presidential order because they were not intended for use as general weapons of war (see box). Helms called the episode "an aberration -something that happened once, to my knowledge." That assessment doubtless would be shared by many of the agency's defenders, who believe the CIA is being unfairly hounded, partly for political reasons. But committee members thought otherwise. Said Church: "We have found out that ambiguity seems to plague...
...addition to the celebrated 11 gm. of deadly shellfish toxin and 8 mg. of lethal cobra venom, the CIA stockpiled eight substances that can kill people and 27 others that will temporarily incapacitate them. A sampling, drawn from an inventory that was made public last week at a hearing conducted by the Senate committee investigating the agency...