Re: mushrooms and plutonium

["DAVE GILMORE" <DGILMORE@navajo.astate.edu>]

> A recent local news broadcast in Columbus mentioned some Clevelanders who
> became very ill from eating mushrooms picked in their backyards.  The
> reporter named the toxin involved (I can't remember which one), saying that
> it is "...the most toxic substance known."  I hope that the station
> remembers this when they cover the next plutonium story.

Amanita muscaris most likely, the Death Angel mushroom.  Inhibits 
protein synthesis, shuts down the liver.  Plutonium probably is 
safer.

 
David F. Gilmore
Assistant Professor of Environmental Biology    0  0 
P.O. Box 599, Dept. of Biological Sciences       __    "have a day" 
Arkansas State University 
State University, AR 72467
dgilmore@navajo.astate.edu
ph  501-972-3082    fax 501-972-2638