Re: Can death result from drinking a glass of heavy water?

D2O (heavy water) does have minor molecular differences to H2O. The 
differences are related to the angle between the two "hydrogen" bonds, this 
affects properties of water based on the dipole moment (charge 
distribution). However these differences are academic, human physiology can 
not distinguish such minor changes and will absorb, process, utilise and 
excrete D2O in a fashion which is absolutely indistingishable from H2O. 
Deuterium occurs naturally and is a stable isotope (not radioactive) it's 
abundance is approx 0.015% (http://www.dne.bnl.gov/CoN/nuc/H/H2.shtml) 
which indicates that a typical 80kg male human contains approx 2 teaspoons 
(8-10g) of water containing deuterium.

I don't know about you, but I feel surprisingly healthy considering the 
article you refer to indicates I should be on death's door.

The author of your reference article may have confused deuterium with 
tritium, the third hydrogen isotope (this confusion is very interesting, 
considering the reputation of the journal in question). Water based on 
tritium is also indistinguishable from H2O in human physiology, however 
tritium is radioactive which may lead to significant physiological effects 
(such as death) if consumed in sufficient quantity. 
For example: the ALI (allowable limit of intake) for tritium is 1GBq, this 
means that consuming 1GBq of tritium results in a whole body committed 
radiation equivalent dose of 20mSv. A dose of 10Sv would virtually 
guarantee death (since the LD50 for humans is approx 4.5Sv). So if a person 
were to consume 500GBq of tritiated water they would absorb, process, 
utilise and excrete the water as per normal but they would almost certainly 
die from acute radiation exposure, within weeks. It may be possible to 
produce 500GBq of tritiated water in a volume equivalent to one glass full, 
it would depend on the specific activity of the initial production of the 
radioisotope.

I would recommend questioning the author/publisher of the article you 
referenced to clear up the problem.

Hope this helps
Regards
Ant