Staff at a top secret defence factory in Russia claim they have been exposed to deadly thallium and that their government is trying to cover it up.
The 27 men and women who work at the plane-making factory have issued a plea for help after accusing their bosses of attempting to suppress the truth over the potentially radioactive leak.
Many have lost their hair from the attack and suffered chronic sicknesses from which they may not fully recover.
Doctors were confused by the poisoning and initially diagnosed gastritis or rotavirus – or told staff they were healthy.
Thallium was seen as Cold War weapon – but it is not normally used in the factory, which makes the poisoning all the more mysterious.
The outbreak is revealed as ex-Russian military spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter Yulia were hit by a mystery poisoning in Wiltshire, in the UK.
One woman called Inna Aleinikova showed on a video how she is going bald after becoming ill at the Taganrog Beriev Aircraft Scientific and Technical Complex, a leading maker of amphibious aircraft in Russia.
“This is my hair – all that’s now left of it now,” she said.
“It is as if your body has lost all its skin – you can’t touch it.
“In early December, me and some other employees of the legal department felt similar symptoms – acute pains in the chest, muscles and joints.
“I turned to doctors in Taganrog but they said I was healthy.
“In early January I began to lose my hair, as did four other colleagues.
“Blood tests proved that I had thallium poisoning.”
Other workers had different symptoms.
Thallium in isotope form can be radioactive but it is not clear is this was the case here.
Workers are “angry that their symptoms have not been properly checked and the authorities want to cover up and deny the thallium poisoning”, one local report said.
Economist Ksenia Sergus said she woke feeling severe pains when she breathed in. These spread to her back and bottom.
Others suffered nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.
The plant’s medical department and local doctors denied anything suspicious – and it was left to the workers to check their symptoms on the internet and conclude they had thallium poisoning. They then had private tests to verify the diagnosis.
Victim Konstantin Kolesnikov, who is now in a wheelchair, told Blokot: “At first they treated me from gastritis, then they diagnosed polyneuropathy, this is something common for people drinking alcohol.
“But then the doctor called me and asked to have a test on thallium.
“The results were shocking. I have lost almost all my hair.”
Only in January did tests prove he had talcum poisoning.
His wife Elena said: “We were told that he would walk himself in about a year but nobody can guarantee anything about his eye sight.”
Others fear that antidotes were not given promptly because of the misdiagnosis.
Thallium has been used as a murder weapon in several countries because it was seen as hard to trace.
Workers have signed a petition complaining about the failure to diagnose their conditions, and inappropriate treatments.
Now the secret defence plant has promised financial support for the workers, but the plant denies using deadly thallium.
Despite the mass alleged poisoning, no formal criminal case has been opened.
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