Polonium 210 November 28, 2006
Posted by dorigo in food, news, physics, science.trackback
Polonium 210 is one of the most poisonous substances on earth. A powerful alpha emitter, with a half-life of 138 days and an emission energy of 5 MeV, Polonium is not a substance anyone should mess with.
As with all alpha emitters, this substance is not dangerous by itself if kept outside of one’s body: alpha projectiles only travel few millimeters in air, and fail to create a danger. It is only through inhalation or ingestion that the horrible effects of this substance become evident. The energy released by this fast-decaying isotope is quite high (a unbelievable 140 watts per gram according to wikipedia), and the amount of damage manifests very quickly in the hosting body, as was demonstrated a few days ago with the death of the russian spy Alexsandr Livitnenko in London.
Livitnenko was allegedly poisoned while eating at a sushi bar near Piccadilly Circus, in the center of the city: most probably his killer sprayed a small amount of the substance over his meal. In any case, the substance is volatile -probably the radioactive decay spontaneously sublimates atoms of the material by spallation- and its nasty effects are so powerful that even less than a nanogram can be deadly. Quoting wikipedia again, the maximum allowable amount of ingested substance is 7 picograms – a sphere 1 micron in diameter is already harmful!
I think it is wise to wait for at least 10 half-lives to visit that sushi bar now. That’s 7 years!
I will follow your suggestion. But the sushi bars around Picadilly are tempting.
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Something’s not right. Unless there is some method to allow Polonium 210 to go undetected after use, why would the perpetrators leave a clue, thus creating a reasonable suspicion as to their identity. Certainly the Kremlin employs methods with tighter restrictions when communicationg with their intelligence agents. Thanks, as I often learn something from your blog. For free, no less!
Ok Fred, send a check of 10 US$ as monthly subscription
I think whomever did this indeed wanted to leave a trace. There are lots of ways to kill a person that do not make the headlines, and Polonium is indeed quite easy to trace. The idea I made of the whole story is that the perpetrators left a message loud and clear for the right ears to listen to.
Cheers,
T.
you can check the table at http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat2/reCenter.jsp?z=84&n=126
Its main alpha drives 5304.33 keV.
dose: 5.30433 ( MeV/Bq-s )
I always believed that sushi was an incredibly stimulating food, even without polonium.
I guess after this case they’ll finally install some radiocation detectors at the airports (I’m rather surprised they didn’t already.
As they say, “This is London”. Do not expect the smart measure. They can forbide the use of trash cans because there was a bomb in one of them once. Or to forbid any liquid in the plane and then offer you a whole paramedical set of supplies after passing the security control.
They like the spy thing, specially if austro-hungarian secret services and snake venoms are involved. Polonium is a funny variation.
Ciao Meggy, checking for alpha emitters is not quite easy. Alpha particles are shielded by as little material as a sheet of paper, so you could conceal a microgram of Polonium practically anywhere with zero risk of being caught, even by the most sophisticated tools. A microgram of Polonium can kill ten thousand people, by the way.
Alejandro, who didn’t read a spy story at least once ? And we all like those involving unlikely assassinations. I think the funny thing is that I feel more awe than concern about this contamination issue
Cheers,
T.
All good. But, isn’t 10 half-lives more like… 4 years?
Thought American Elements’ website (www.americanelements.com)would a useful resource–info on Po 210 and 100s of other Isotopes, Nanomaterials, etc. (Disclaimer: I’m an engineer with the company!)