Revised April 15, 2018: Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov,
is reported to have stated that:
...the substance used on Sergei Skripal was an agent called BZ, according to Swiss state Spiez lab.... The toxin was never produced in Russia, but was in service in the US, UK, and other NATO states.
BZ, or Buzz, is a common name for 3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate, a white, odorless, water soluble, crystalline solid, with a molecular mass of 337.419 and a melting point of 164 C.
Like botulinum toxin, BZ can kill through paralysis, and hence asphyxiation, although the modes of action of the substances differ.
Botulinum toxin inhibits the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, whereas BZ binds to the acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction without activating them. In either case, the result of a sufficiently large dose is paralysis, and in either case, the effect is countered by any agent that inhibits the enzymic breakdown of acetyl choline at the neuromuscular junction (for example the "as developed in Russia" nerve agent, Novichok).
The toxicity of BZ is quite low, with
an estimated LD50 (dose required to create a 50% chance of death) of about one tenth of a gram, or about one millionth the toxicity of botulinum toxin. Symptoms of BZ toxicity include delirium, hallucination and general mental incapacity.
BZ is a recognized antimuscarinic pharmacological agent available for purchase from Sigma-Aldrich
and more than a dozen other commercial sources. So if BZ was the only chemical to which the Skripals were exposed, it indicates that
the decision to tear-down Sergei Skripal's house, and the restaurant and pub where Sergei Skripal and his daughter obtained refreshment the day they were poisoned is either totally insane, or part of a theatrical production entitled:
THE SKRIPALS:
A Russian, Horror, WMD Terror-Attack Midst England's Green and Pleasant Land.
If the
Spiez Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection are correct in their analysis of the samples supplied to them, either by the UK or the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (which organization
is too coy to reveal what it found through multiple analyses by independent laboratories of the blood samples supplied to them by the UK Government), it could explain several features of the Skripal poisoning narrative.
First, if BZ was the agent that caused the Skripals to be hospitalized, it would explain the long delay between the time of ingestion of the poison, whether at home in the buckwheat cereal that Yulia Skripals friend had brought for the Skripals from Moscow, or at lunch with their seafood salad. Second, it would explain Sergei Skipal's loud and angry Russian-language rant about the slow service at the restaurant where they lunched as the result of BZ-induced delirium or hallucination.
What the finding of BZ poisoning refutes, if BZ was indeed the poison and not the therapeutically administered antidote to a different poison, is the evidence of a woman reported to be a doctor who attended on the Skripals in the park where they were said to have been found incapacitated. As we have
already suggested, that hearsay evidence of an alleged doctor, who requested that her identity not be revealed, is highly questionable.
Furthermore, if the poisoning of the Skripals was due to BZ, then the "doctor" of undisclosed identity was surely a plant whose job it was to provide false circumstantial evidence of Novichok poisoning: specifically, her claim to reporters that the Skipals were vomiting and convulsing — symptoms quite the opposite of the physical paralysis induced by severe BZ poisoning.
Questions that remain for the British Government include the following:
Why did Dr. Davies, the Resident for Emergency Medicine at the Salisbury Trust Hospital, say that no one had been treated for nerve agent poisoning?
If as claimed the Skripals were admitted to the Salisbury Trust Hospital with symptoms of nerve agent poisoning, what analyses of blood and vomit were conducted on the orders of the attending physicians and with what results?
Unless, at this late stage, the government of Theresa May produces convincing evidence to the contrary, it must be concluded that the Skripal poisoning saga is simply a ridiculous charade written and carried out by buffoons with little relevant knowledge other than of how to so shape the lips, tongue and larynx as to emit a cloud of lies potentially culminating in a nuclear conflagration.
Postscript
An anonymous commenter has kindly drawns our attention to the following
statement on Russia's UK Embassy website:
Embassy Press Officer comments on the findings of the Swiss experts regarding the Salisbury incident
According to information from the Swiss Federal Institute for NBC-protection in Spiez, its experts received samples collected in Salisbury by the OPCW specialists and finished testing them on 27 March.
The experts of the Institute discovered traces of toxic chemical called “BZ” and its precursors. It is a Schedule 2 substance under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
“BZ” is a chemical agent, which is used to temporary incapacitate people. The desired psychotoxic effect is reached in 30-60 minutes after application of the agent and lasts up to four days. According to the information the Russian Federation possesses, this agent was used in the armed forces of the USA, United Kingdom and several others NATO member states. No stocks of such substance ever existed either in the Soviet Union or in the Russian Federation.
In addition, the Swiss specialists discovered strong concentration of traces of the nerve agent of A-234 type in its initial states as well as its decomposition products.
In view of the experts, such concentration of the A-234 agent would result in inevitable fatal outcome of its administration. Moreover, considering its high volatility, the detection of this substance in its initial state (pure form and high concentration) is extremely suspicious as the samples have been taken several weeks since the poisoning.
It looks highly likely that the “BZ” nerve agent was used in Salisbury. The fact that Yulia Skripal and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey have already been discharged from hospital, and Sergei Skripal is on his way to recovery, only supports such conclusion.
All this information was not mentioned in the final OPCW report at all.
Considering the above, we have numerous serious questions to all interested parties, including the OPCW.
So the Russians are suggesting that the blood samples supplied to the OPCW were spiked with Novichok, aka A234.
The presence of both a choline esterase inhibitor (the Novichok A234) and a paralytic agent (BZ) confirms our prediction that the blood samples would contain both: one the poison; the other the antidote.
Ignoring the suspiciously high concentration of Novichok, which raises the possibility of the samples being spiked, the question then is which of the two nerve agents discovered was the poison and which the antidote. If the Novichok was the antidote, that might explain its suspiciously high concentration, since it would have been given in small doses for some time after the initial poisoning.
It now appears that the debate about what happened will end without definite conclusion unless witnesses in the UK come forward, e.g., medical staff at the Salisbury Trust Hospital. Presumably such witnesses are currently under great pressure to keep their mouths shut.
Post Postscript
As reported by Ambassador Craig Murray, in his recent review of the Skripal Poisionings,
Ten Points I Just Can’t Believe About the Official Skripal Narrative the "'doctor' of undisclosed identity" who happened to be on hand at the moment that the Skripals were simultaneously subject to convulsions, turns out to have been none other than the Chief Nurse of the British Army. Thus, Murray writes:
The very first person to discover the Skripals ill on a park bench in Salisbury just happened to be the Chief Nurse of the British Army, who chanced to be walking past them on her way back from a birthday party. How lucky was that? The odds are about the same as the chance of my vacuum cleaner breaking down just before James Dyson knocks at my door to ask for directions. There are very few people indeed in the UK trained to give nursing care to victims of chemical weapon attack, and of all the people who might have walked past, it just happened to be the most senior of them! |
Related:
CanSpeccy: The UK's Novichok Poisoning Cover-up
Moon of Alabama: Were the Skripals 'Buzzed', 'Novi-shocked' Or Neither? - May Has Some 'Splaining' To Do
Craig Murray: The British Government’s Legal Justification for Bombing is Entirely False and Without Merit
CanSpeccy: Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning
CanSpeccy: Novijoke: To Russia With Hate
