High Profile Poisonings

There have been several interesting and deadly poisonings recently. Recall the disfiguring dioxin poisoning of Ukranian politician Viktor Yushchenko a couple of years ago?

Then there was the fatal poisoning last year of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko by the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210, one gram of which could kill 50 million people.

Now we have two Soviet-born Americans who have been diagnosed with thallium poisoning while visiting Russia. How they may have ingested the poison — a colorless, tasteless substance that can be fatal in doses of as little as one gram — was not clear.

Also this week, an expert in Russian intelligence, Paul Joyal, was critically injured when he was shot by two men in his driveway only days after he accused the Russian government of involvement in the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. In an interview broadcast on "Dateline NBC," Joyal had also accused the Russian government of trying to silence its critics: "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you, and we will silence you — in the most horrible way possible," Joyal said.

Haunting words indeed: his assassins shot him in the groin.

Lead poisoning can be horrible too.