The wine was also superb. Now to relax watching the boats sail past your balcony on a beautiful summer evening. The tingling and numbness around your mouth, tongue, and face is spreading to your arms and legs. Standing, you stagger a few steps and almost fall. Too much red wine for dinner you think.
Breathing becomes difficult.
Paralysis overcomes your body. The shellfish poisoning syndrome PSP has been studied from early this century, however research has only just resumed after a period of constraint. Saxitoxin, the poison that causes the paralysis, is so potent the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention lists it among the leading chemical weapons of war. This forced the banning of research. Dr Lyndon Llewellyn from the Australian Institute of Marine Science became interested in saxitoxin while studying in the United States.