Dioxin level 6,000 times normal
New tests by the Free University in Amsterdam reveal that Yushchenko’s blood contains around 100,000 units of dioxin per gram of blood fat, 6,000 times the normal level of dioxins and the second-highest dioxin level ever recorded in a human. University Prof. Adam Brouwer:
From a (chemical) fingerprint, at least you can deduce what kind of sources might have been involved. The labs will … try to find out whether it matches any of the batches of dioxins that are around, so that maybe you can trace it back to where it was ordered or where it came from.
Medical officials say that while Yushchenko’s pockmarked appearance will persist, he has likely survived the worst of the poisoning. It is also possible that Yushchenko has ingested dioxin-like PCBs, which have were banned from use in most of the world in electrical transformers and as hydraulic fluid in the 1970s because they are highly toxic and persist in the environment.