acrylamide with coffee

[Bernard P. Murray, PhD]

In article <6q4fu0$bru$1 at niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk>, gmorley at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk
(Mr. G. Morley) wrote:

> >> I remember that incident well, as word of it spread rapidly through the 
> >> scientific community here.  I also recall an incident at NIH involving a
> >> water cooler spiked with 32P.
> >> 
> >> Antonin Tutter
> 
> >Aargh!  Don't remind me about that.  I worked in that building and
> >the resulting fuss made working with any kind of radioactivity
> >very difficult for a long time after.
> >         Bernard
> 

> How on earth did the water cooler get spiked with 32P? and how did anyone
> find out about it?

Although we had numerous meetings where the investigation was described
we were never told the actual outcome.  The incident apparently revolved
around a poor relationship between a researcher and her boss.  From the
few facts we were given it was apparent that someone *did* ingest 32P,
a water cooler *was* contaminated (but nowhere near enough to explain
the human contamination) and the contamination/ingestion *was* deliberate.
The major debate was self-administration vs. "poisoning".
     Nasty business all around....
          Bernard
-- 
Bernard P. Murray, PhD
Dept. Cell. Mol. Pharmacol., UCSF, San Francisco, USA