A group of Harvard scientists and students were poisoned in August after drinking from coffee contaminated with a chemical preservative known as sodium azide, according to an internal memorandum leaked to the Boston Herald yesterday. Seconds after sipping the coffee, all six victims felt dizzy and were rushed to a nearby hospital. The lab workers were released, but the jury’s still out on how the odorless white solid, which can be deadly, got in the single-serve coffee machine near the victims’ pathology lab. NEWSWEEK’s Johannah Cornblatt talked to Dr. Michael Greenberg, the president of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, about the dangers of sodium azide, as well as the chemical’s atypical use as a poison. Although Greenberg considers sodium azide a strange choice for a poisoning agent, he remains “very suspicious” that the chemical ended up in the Harvard coffeemaker by accident.
How is sodium azide typically used?
It’s usually used as a preservative. It used to be used in automobile airbags. It was used in farming. It’s also used as a pest control.
What happens if sodium azide comes in contact with your skin?
It can cause burns. They’re usually not terribly bad, but it depends on how much you get on your skin, where you get it on your skin, and how long it stays on.
What about if you inhale or ingest it?
If you breathe in sodium azide or you ingest it, it can be a serious problem. If you ingest it, it will form a gas. If the person is vomiting, that gas could come out of the vomit and harm the people around them. So people in the emergency department need to be careful dealing with the body waste and vomit of anyone poisoned by sodium azide. It can cause seizures, coma, death.
How likely is death?
It depends on the duration and the concentration. It can be a lethal chemical if you drink it. If you drink enough of it, it can kill you for sure.
What are the long-term side effects if you do survive?
It depends on how sick you become. If you have low blood pressure because of it—which can happen—you can have various other problems related to low blood pressure, like cardiac injury or brain injury.
How often is sodium azide used as a poison?
We don’t commonly come across sodium azide as a poison. Usually when we see exposures, they’re accidental instead of homicidal. I don’t think I’ve seen a homicidal use of sodium azide in my career.
Is it possible that the sodium azide ended up in that coffee maker by accident?
I suppose if it was being stored improperly in a container that looked like another container. But it’s probably not something that’s going to naturally turn up in a coffeemaker.
