Death in a Single Grain

Viewed from some distance, every disaster brings some benefits, too. Some processes have to be re-evaluated, and the way things are conducted in the future will be different from the previous practices. Technologies should be reviewed and more stringent safety measures must be taken. 

Barium sulfate seems to be a notorious substance, at least according to the popnlar press. On December 4, 2003 a traffic accident in Hungary involved a track that was transporting barium sulfate. Some of the media reported the accident and noted that a single grain of the substances could cause death. 

A literary mystery is also cormected to barirrm srrlfate. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s crime story titled A Case of Identity, a conversation between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson goes like this. 

There is a huge mystery here. The rrame bisrrlphate of baryta would correspond to the chemical formttla Ba(HSO,)2. A srrbstance with this formttla is unknown in modem science. What cottld have been the salt Sherlock Holmes was working upon  

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