Poision Victim Alleges Foul Play

The toxic agent found in cups of coffee that sent six Harvard Medical School researchers to the hospital last August was likely there on purpose, according to one of the victims.

Matteo Iannacone, a research fellow who has worked at the 8th floor laboratory of the New Research Building for more than two years, told The Crimson in an interview yesterday that he cannot think of how the chemical, a laboratory preservative called sodium azide, would have accidentally wound up in his and his colleagues’ coffee on Aug. 26.

“I just think it’s very difficult to find an alternative explanation for sodium azide in the water. That’s it,” he said.

Iannacone said he found out that sodium azide was the toxin along with three other victims last Thursday in a meeting with HMS officials. The other two victims were out of the country, he said.

While he qualified his opinion by saying that he does not have any specific evidence to support his suspicion, he said that those present at that meeting agreed that the poisoning could not have been accidental.

“When we had the meeting, that was the general consensus of everybody,” he said. “Nobody with a grain of salt thought it was an accident, but we’re still waiting for the police to make the call.”

Iannacone said he first felt symptoms almost instantly after sipping a cup of coffee at 3 p.m. with graduate student and fellow victim Lidia Bosurgi. He said he noticed a metallic taste and then felt a drop in blood pressure and an increase in pulse. Upon learning that four others had reported similar symptoms, he said he was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in an ambulance.

A memorandum written by HMS administrators released last Friday said that all six victims were seen at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which contradicts what Iannacone told both The Crimson and the Associated Press. When asked about this apparent discrepancy, he said that he did not remember which hospital he attended and that it might have been Beth Israel.

Iannacone and Bosurgi both work under the supervision of HMS Professor Ulrich H. von Andrian. Both Bosurgi and von Andrian could not be reached for comment.

Julie E. Goodman, an adjunct lecturer in epidemiology at the School of Public Health and a toxicologist at Gradient, an environmental consulting firm, said that the victims were lucky given the deadliness of the chemical.

“The idea in this case with the poisoning is that people were fortunate that they didn’t have enough that could have killed them. They had enough that they were having some adverse effects, but not enough to be lethal,” she said.

HMS spokesman David J. Cameron said there were no new developments in light of Iannocone’s suspicions.

“I can’t really say anything to that other than what I’ve said before, that investigation going on,” he said.