[ RadSafe ] Uranium Toxicity

[efforrer at aol.com]

Many many years ago while I was working in the Radiation Safety Office at a large research university we had a researcher that wanted to look into the toxicity of uranium. Specifically he was looking at what body burden would create a dose high enough to cause health effects. As I recall the heavy metal characteristics of uranium did far more damage and far more quickly than the radiation ever could. I have often wondered if people are concentrating on the radioactive aspect of a radioactive material and ignoring the fact that many of these materials are chemically toxic. On that vein dose anyone know if it was the radiation or the chemical characteristic of the polonium that killed that Russian spy. His decline seemed very rapid for a dose that could be carried around and discretely added to his food or drink.
 
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.