Kalla's soup not killer dish: Police<\/p>\n
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar<\/p>\n
Police confirmed on Friday there were an insignificant levels of
\narsenic found in the soup prepared for Vice President Jusuf Kalla
\nwhen he visited Bali.<\/p>\n
Denpasar Police head of the forensic and laboratory unit, Sr.
\nComr. Budiono, said that samples of the food items contained 0.09
\nmg of arsenic.<\/p>\n
\"Of the four samples we took, we found arsenic in the two
\nsamples of the soup, but we did not find it in the other two
\nsamples of the slices of cabbage leaves and fried chicken,\"
\nBudiono said here.<\/p>\n
Budiono said the level of arsenic, which were identified
\nthrough the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer and reduction and
\noxidization methods, was relatively far lower than the level that
\ncould lead to death.<\/p>\n
\"If the level is at 185 mg ... per liter of water, then it can
\ncause death. So, you can conclude yourself the possible effect of
\nthe amount we discovered of only 0.09 mg,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The safe level of naturally occurring arsenic in the
\nenvironment that humans could breathe in without harm was 0.05
\nmg, he said.<\/p>\n
\"So, it is still quite harmless if the level of arsenic is a
\nlittle bit higher than that,\" a police forensics specialist, who
\nstudied in the United Kingdom, said.<\/p>\n
A number of vice presidential guards suspected the presence of
\narsenic in the food prepared for Kalla when he arrived here on
\nWednesday to meet participants of the Golkar Party Congress.
\nKalla is vying for the party's chairmanship post.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear why the guards suspected the dish of
\ncontaining arsenic; the substance is colorless and tasteless and
\nnot easily detected without a laboratory test.<\/p>\n
Human rights activist Munir, who died of arsenic poisoning in
\nSeptember, is strongly suspected to have been deliberately
\npoisoned in a political assassination.<\/p>\n
Police said they would continue to test the food to find out
\nwhere the low level of arsenic came from.<\/p>\n
\"We are trying to find out where the arsenic came from,
\nwhether it's from the water itself, the cooked food, or the
\nspices. But we also need to remember that there's also arsenic
\nall over us, even in the air we breathe,\" Budiono said.<\/p>\n
Detectives chief Sr. Comr. DBM Suharya said police had
\nquestioned five people who were directly involved in serving the
\nfood to Kalla.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/kallas-soup-not-killer-dish-police-1447893297",
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