A dawn phone call from Breakfast radio giant and comedian Red Symons was the last thing CQU's Lisa Bricknell expected after making a presentation at an environmental health conference recently.

Ms Bricknell's conference topic was aflatoxin contamination - surely not something the news media would have grabbed with 2 hands and run with. But how wrong could she be.

"I really hadn't expected the attention - I was thinking that it was going to be a fairly low key conference and that I'd just be presenting to fellow environmental health professionals," she explained.

"The issue of aflatoxin contamination is a bit out of left field for most practising environmental health professionals, so I used the food angle (toxins in corn flakes) and a punchy title to get their interest."

Ms Bricknell told the 10^th World Congress on Environmental Health in Brisbane that higher temperatures and lower rainfall could lead to a higher incidence of corn being contaminated with aflatoxins, one of the most potent liver toxins ever recorded.

Within a day of making the presentation Lisa Brickell's name and her "Killer Cornflake/Cereal Killer" story was over international and national TV, radio and newspapers. It even reached CBS News in the US.

"I'm still getting calls. I've had a TV program in South Australia wanting an interview, an independent radio station in Melbourne, as well as journalism and high school students wanting interviews."

"The story making an appearance on Good News Week was hilarious.

"On the whole, it's calmed down and I'm expecting it to be my 15 minutes of fame and I now can return to teaching and doing some less controversial research."