Chapter 511 Source of Toxin
No one has ever experienced such a large-scale food poisoning incident, which resulted in four deaths.
Zhang Hui's expression became more serious: "People with serious symptoms are in the ICU. The hospital is doing its best to rescue them, but the situation is not optimistic."
"The hospital has not found anything. What kind of toxin is poisoning?”
“Basically confirmed.”
Zhang Hui turned on his mobile phone. Above were the blood test results sent from the hospital: "TTX was found in the blood of dozens of poisoned patients at the hospital!"
"TTX? Tetrodotoxin?"
Lu Chuan’s face suddenly turned very ugly!
Tetrodotoxin is one of the most deadly toxins, and 0.5 mg can cause death.
A small puffer fish contains enough poison in its body to kill 30 adults.
It can be said that this is a more poisonous toxin than potassium hydride, and it was determined to be tetrodotoxin. There is also an explanation for why the two people who just died had different death states.
Most people who are poisoned by tetrodotoxin will report different symptoms according to their physical conditions.
Tetrodotoxin mainly attacks the human nervous system, thereby affecting the nervous system's control of various organs in the body.
Since everyone’s nervous system is slightly different, the nervous system’s control of the organs will also be different.
For some people with pre-existing diseases, tetrodotoxin attack will show different symptoms.
To put it simply, after a healthy person is attacked by tetrodotoxin, the heart will gradually stop beating, resulting in insufficient blood supply and death.
For people who are already sick, tetrodotoxin can induce the disease and spread rapidly.
Tetrodotoxin is not a single toxin, but a synthetic toxin. The pufferfish itself does not actually produce this toxin, but some of the algae the pufferfish eats contain trace amounts of tetrodotoxin. After long-term accumulation, After precipitation, a large amount of toxin is formed.
So as long as it is a wild pufferfish, it must contain a high amount of tetrodotoxin, but artificially cultured pufferfish, because they eat artificial feed, will not accumulate toxins and are naturally non-toxic.
It is impossible to serve pufferfish for breakfast at a construction site, which means that there is basically no possibility of accidentally ingesting pufferfish.
"People from the action team are already investigating the surrounding videos to check for poisoners."
"The testing in the cafeteria will be left to you."
Lu Chuan understood what Zhang Hui meant. , since the other party is poisoning, there are two possibilities. The first is to poison on site, and the second is to poison the food.
Tetrodotoxin will only lose activity when the temperature is above 220 degrees. In general frying and frying, only local temperatures will exceed this temperature, but it is difficult to achieve comprehensive results.
As for steaming, it is completely unable to deactivate tetrodotoxin.
This is also the reason why wild pufferfish is still poisonous even after being steamed.
Fortunately, there is a bit of good news. Tetrodotoxin is not contagious. It only breaks down into the blood after consumption and enters the circulatory system to produce toxic reactions.
Lu Chuan began to collect some leftover food from the breakfast at the construction site, as well as some unused raw materials.
We need to get through these things as soon as possible to determine the ultimate source of tetrodotoxin.
This was Lu Chuan's first time doing a poisoning case, but from a professional perspective with his intermediate spot investigation skills, it was not difficult to collect some physical evidence.
The busiest person in handling the case so far is the action team. There is only surveillance video at the exit of the construction site, but not elsewhere.
In fact, construction site management is relatively standardized. Generally, people entering and exiting must swipe their ID cards to enter and exit.
However, this type of management is only for those who enter the building for construction, and the logistics staff are not within the scope of card swiping.
The entrance and exit of canteen materials do not go through the main entrance of the construction site, but through an opening at the side door.
Here, there is no monitoring at all.
In the back kitchen of the canteen, the master chef is being questioned.
“I’ve only heard of pufferfish, but I’ve never seen it before. It’s impossible to have something like that in our canteen.” The master chef in the kitchen at the construction site is actually not a professional chef.
“I contracted the canteen of this construction site through my brother-in-law’s relationship. The requirements are not high, just three cooked meals a day.”
“In the morning We bought all the steamed buns from outside, and then made a pot of vegetable soup. The other things were pickles, and there was nothing left.”
“Do the ingredients in your canteen have quarantine certificates?”
“Yes, we do. All the meat purchased in our canteen is from formal channels and has inspection and quarantine stamps. The vegetables are bought from the wet market. Yes, the vegetable market is not far from the construction site. Go out and turn left at the farmer's market 300 meters away. "
"Who is responsible for purchasing?"
"I follow the vegetable seller in the market. Order the food and they will deliver it to me at a fixed time every morning.”
“Comrade police, you won’t suspect that I poisoned you, right?”
The chef shook his head like a rattle: "I have no grudges against these workers. They eat here and I collect money. I wish they would be healthy and come to eat more often. How could I poison them?" ?”
“I didn’t say it was just you who poisoned me. Don’t be nervous. No matter who poisoned you, they will be found out in the end. Just cooperate with our work.”
“Oh. , Cooperate, cooperate, I will definitely cooperate!”
If it is poisoning by general pesticide residues, or poisoning by poisonous animals and plants, the person in charge of the canteen will definitely be involved.
But tetrodotoxin obviously does not enter the canteen casually through natural channels. Deliberate poisoning is basically a certainty.
In this case, the canteen's responsibility is not big.
After all, it cannot have the ability to detect tetrodotoxin.
“How many people are preparing breakfast today?”
“It’s just me. Breakfast is very simple. The steamed buns were all delivered this morning. After the vegetable soup was delivered, Wash it, cut it, just boil it.”
“No outsiders coming?”
"No."
No outsiders entered the kitchen, and the chef had no motive for poisoning. So there is a high probability that there is something wrong with the source.
After the person who asked reported the situation to Zhang Hui, he gave his own guess.
“Judging from the current situation, the high probability is that there is a problem with either the steamed buns or the vegetables delivered.”
“According to the person in charge of the canteen, the steamed buns and The two merchants who deliver vegetables have been cooperating with him for a long time. They have been delivering vegetables to him since the beginning of this construction site. ”
"So there is basically no possibility of the other party poisoning, because they have no such motive, but is it possible if they are competitors of these businesses?"
"You mean that the competitors of these businesses are jealous? "
" Or they have any enemies, it is possible, but the specific situation needs to be investigated. "
Zhang Hui nodded, this is indeed a direction.
Of course, it is not ruled out that he is the person in charge of the canteen at the construction site. Some enemies may take revenge on him.
His construction site canteen may not be big or small, but its profit per month is quite considerable. And according to the investigation just now, the other party obtained the right to operate the canteen through his brother-in-law's relationship.
Is it possible that his competitors thought of revenge after seeing that his business was so good?
This is all possible.
After Zhang Hui reported the general situation to Qin Yong, he divided the first group and the second group into two groups.
Sun Jun went to check the steamed bun supplier and vegetable supplier, and Zhang Hui checked the social relations of the person in charge of the canteen.
(End of this chapter)