We have seen three unprecedented and frightening poisonings in recent years.
1996 saw the accidental poisoning of Karen Wetterhahn with a few drops of dimethylmercury on a gloved hand. Who knew a skin contact poison could be so deadly? (Hydrofluoric acid is close.)
2001 saw the murders of Robert Stevens and four others via anthrax in the mail. Just one breath of nearly invisible spores, and you're dead.
2006 saw the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium 210, and we learn how an imperceptible amount of an odorless tasteless alpha emitter can radioactively kill you from the inside.
These three poisonings span chemical, biological, and nuclear. The chemical and nuclear poisonings are rare, man-made, compounds sneaking past the body's defenses. Anthrax is a frontal assault against the main entrance of the most heavily fortified fortress on the planet, the human immune system: each side with three billion years of evolutionary experience in trying to kill the other.
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