chemical Polonium toxicity AW: [ RadSafe ] Uranium Toxicity

[Bair, William]

My sources indicated that the specific activity of Po is so high as to
negate the chemical hazard. It also does not travel well from the gut,
so a fairly large dose would be required. 


Bill Bair, Sr. Scientist
Radiological Engineering
NSTec LLC
(702) 295-4463 (W)
(702) 794-6770 (P)
(702) 630-0631 (C)
(702) 295-7582 (FAX)

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Rainer.Facius at dlr.de
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 10:50 AM
To: efforrer at aol.com; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: chemical Polonium toxicity AW: [ RadSafe ] Uranium Toxicity

Regarding chemo-toxicity of Polonium I found (DOI:
10.1542/peds.2005-0172) that a 20 month old boy of 11.2 kg recovered
from a severe acute Tellurium toxication (the chemically next of kin of
Polonium) which 8 hours postingestion yielded a large blood
concentration of 200 microgram/l. Given that, it is hardly conceivable
that the minute lethal Po concentrations in the order of 0.1
microgram/kg would seriously affect a healthy adult by its chemistry.

 

Acute lethal doses, LD-50, for laboratory animals range between 20
(mouse) and 80 (rat) mg/kg. If the systematic in the neighbouring
metalloid group persists in the chalcogen group, then the (chemical)
toxicity of Polonium should be even less than that of Tellurium.

 

Regards, Rainer 

 

Dr. Rainer Facius
German Aerospace Center
Institute of Aerospace Medicine
Linder Hoehe
51147 Koeln
GERMANY
Voice: +49 2203 601 3147 or 3150
FAX:   +49 2203 61970


________________________________

Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl im Auftrag von efforrer at aol.com
Gesendet: Do 05.04.2007 17:35
An: radsafe at radlab.nl
Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Uranium Toxicity



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.

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