Is there a thread about the poisoning of Skripal? [title edited by MNHQ]

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I've not seen a thread about it at all, but surely there must be?

Bore I agree with the article too.

This is crazy, why would they use such a persistent agent? It makes it an act of terrorism doesn't it?

Agree with you about persistency. That profile would indicate the most persistent type of agent, that had then gone on to be thickened/polymerised to make it last even longer. I mean, months?!

or 'packaged' into microbeads or similar so is only 'activated' after prolonged contact with skin.

very worrying indeed.

This is crazy, why would they use such a persistent agent? It makes it an act of terrorism doesn't it?

To ensure the targets were contaminated even if it took days.

Or to ensure this was in the public domain for a very long time and not easily forgotten like the previous two people who were poisoned.

Meditrina, thank you for the explanation.

the previous many who seem to have died in odd circumstances :(

Sostenuet wrote: "Why shouldn't she be there? she's the only child he has left." So? I guess I just don't get that part.

The restaurant will probably go out of business now, and that is sad, nobody will want to go there for dinner any time soon.

Does the fact they are advising people to wash items suggest that it is water soluble?

Just had a thought could it be possible for whatever this toxin/poison is, for it to be added to the polystyrene packing materials/bubble wrap/potato starch things in a a parcel or package?

I was particularly thinking of the potato starch packing material as it can be squashed/squeezed down (as my DD likes to do this when we get this in our Liz Earle parcels) so could that be a way of activating & getting the toxin on the skin?

Is this possible Patricharchy?

Tracy

I'm really not an expert on this however the normal method of thickening an agent to make it more persistent is to polymerise it, i,e mix it with other chemicals to make the material stick together more and remain a liquid/solid instead of evaporating/subliming to a gas.

I've never seen it in real life but the footage of agents that I have seen that have been treated in that manner looked very much like strings of slime/snot that stick to surfaces and contaminate them in order to make equipment unusable without deep, specialist decontamination. A technique that could be used to attack an enemies armoured units or other high value equipment, to render it unusable for a period of time without having to actually destroy it.

Whether or not you could mix it into some kind of normal household material like packing foam etc? I'm not a chemist but I assume it might be possible.

Any organic chemists on here with any thoughts on that?

Thanks Patriarchy

the previous two people who were poisoned

I was thinking of the bloke who had radioactive material added to his tea, as well as the other bloke who was stabbed with an umbrella whilst crossing a bridge.

Thats all I can recall of those cases apart from one of them being called Litvinenko. Its not really much to remember and I thought of this the other night when this case was being discussed on Gogglebox and one of the older women in it mentioned one of these cases and her friend said oh I can't remember that, are you sure its not a film you saw? And her friend replied you're right, it must have been a film.

Its going to be very difficult to forget the Skripals and what happened to them. And I think thats the point being made.

If this agent is this persistent, then will it be possible to remove it with baby wipes?

persistent means that it doesn't break down rapidly rather than it being especially adherent to surfaces.

oooo, thank you MN I've just seen you've sorted out my awfully mangled title.

So washing clothes which may be contaminated will transfer it to the water system. And those baby wipes will need to be disposed of properly, not just placed in bins?

I think it starts to get down to a theoretical level of contamination by the time it gets to that level.

It’s no classical nerve agent i can think of.

My thought when I heard about the short time delay was a usage transition - something that’s totally safe on skin for example but lethal if ingested/contact with mucous membranes or eyes.
Probably not a classical biological either - things like amanatoides (sp?) take days.

It must have reasonable persistence (by the way the person who was asking upthread about how long some of these things persist, people are still being killed in Syria and other war zones by agents that have settled in voids and cellars. Some are extremely persistent.)

Some form of gel delivery where the containing matrix of gel or transfer agent decays and releases?

I will be fascinated to see what it was. I do hope all involved make a full recovery. He will need to divulge what he’s been up to recently I imagine.

I’ve been wondering how likely it is that the Skripals can recover? It’s not something I’ve seen any news about. Will it be like Litvinenko and a slow death or did they find them soon enough for them to be okay? I know it’s all speculation when it’s unclear what affected them.

Is it just coincidence/collateral damage that Skripal's daughter was included? Now I've written that I'm wondering whether it was perhaps just coincidence/collateral damage that he was there. We don't know what she has been up to do we.

I’ve been wondering how likely it is that the Skripals can recover

Depends what they’ve been poisoned with. If it is a nerve agent they may recover but suffer long term effects. Livinenko was poisoned with a polonium, a radioactive substance - you can’t remove that from the body so he would always have died.
Something like dioxin that victor yuschenko was poisoned with you can recover but again long term side effects.

The fact they’re still alive a few days after is positive but they’re unlikely to skip out of hospital next week.

We're not being told anything like the whole story. I think it's significant his daughter was with him. I read they are now looking to see if the flowers were the carrier of this poison

Not RTFT but given that there are links to the trump - russia story .. could it even be the americans?

I've been following this case closely as I live not far from and used to work in Salisbury (office in the Maltings in fact).

I have a theory about his behaviour in Zizis - I was wondering if the reason why he was kicking up a fuss was because he saw someone he recognised and was trying to draw as much attention to himself as possible to make their job more difficult/have as many witnesses as possible?

My thought when I heard about the short time delay was a usage transition - something that’s totally safe on skin for example but lethal if ingested/contact with mucous membranes or eyes.

It would have to be something that affected both of them at the same time. Eyes could be uncertain - tricky to get two people to rub their eyes at the same time? I guess if they shared a meal at home they could have eaten from the same dish.