Yushchenko poisoning 'second highest ever'

New tests reveal the level of dioxin poison in the blood of Ukrainian presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko is more than 6,000 times higher than normal, according to the expert analysing the samples.

The concentration, about 100,000 units per gram of blood fat, is the second highest ever recorded in human history, said Abraham Brouwer, professor of environmental toxicology at the Free University in Amsterdam where blood samples taken last weekend in Vienna were sent for analysis.

Brouwer’s team has narrowed the search from more than 400 dioxins to about 29 and is confident they will identify the poison by week’s end. That, in turn, could provide clues for the investigation of the alleged poisoning.

“From a (chemical) fingerprint, at least you can deduce what kind of sources might have been involved,” Brouwer said today. “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.”

Experts say Yushchenko, whose face has been pockmarked and disfigured, has probably experienced the worst effects already and should gradually recover, with no impairment to his working ability.

The reformist candidate, who faces Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych in a repeat runoff on December 26, first fell ill in September.