A toxicologist on the detectability of Novichok, which may have killed Navalny

If Alexei Navalny's death was caused by the nerve agent Novichok — Vladimir Putin's preferred method of dissent eradication — and if Russian authorities are now holding his body for "at least two weeks" so that by then the poison will be undetectable in his system, the authorities may be in for some Novichok treatment themselves.

That's two big ifs, but also the prevailing assumptions. Thus I became curious about the undetectability moment of Novichok. I'm no toxicologist; still, two weeks seemed a rather short amount of time for such a powerful killer to entirely degrade. So I dug around a bit. First, some background that touches on the subject.   

From the National Library of Medicine's "Archives of Toxicology": "Novichok is the name given to the group of nerve agents created stealthily in the later phases of the Cold War by the Soviet Union. [They] constitute the fourth generation of chemical warfare agents; like other nerve agents, they are organophosphorus compounds designed to be incurable and undetectable."

They were specifically designed to be undetectable "by standard North Atlantic Treaty Organization chemical detection equipment." Like so much of what was designed by the Soviet Union, its plan didn't quite work out. Discovered as a "beneficial methodology" for detection of the Novichok nerve agent A-232 was "vibrational spectroscopy."

Ultimately, Novichok does become undetectable. Deutsche Welle News was as curious as I about when, so it asked biochemist and toxicologist Dr. Marc-Michael Blum, who once worked on a case of the nerve agent's poisoning, for his expert opinion. If you have five minutes, watch the video. Though a trifle disappointing when it comes to a firm answer, his description of the poison's ghastly effects on the human body is both informative and horrifying.  

If you couldn't watch it, or watch all of it, his answer to the when question is "definitely ... more than two weeks"; undetectability can take "weeks if not months." A major variable is the rate of the body's decomposition. 

If all goes according to standard Russian reliability, meaning the authorities release Navalny's body before the poison is, in fact, entirely out of his system, they can probably expect an injection of a couple milligrams of Novichok themselves. Courtesy, Mr. Putin. Or so I hope.

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[Uncle Billy]

You can be sure that Nalvany's ashes have already been scattered at sea.