[ RadSafe ] Polonium-210 poisoning

[franz.schoenhofer at chello.at]

Larry,

You cannot remember the numbers, because they were not published - officially because it was a "pending case" and it is still pending of political reasons. 

I agree with you that it might be surprising how radiotoxic Po-210 is, but whenever you would have been involved in the question of natural radioactive isotopes in drinking water (as I have been), you would have had a look at the dose factors and discovered that they are highest for Po-210. Fortunately the concentration of Po-210 in drinking and mineral waters are usually very low and therefore of no concern.

I have in my life worked as a (radio)chemist with all kind of poisonous stuff from cyanides to organic poisons which sent me twice to the hospital ambulance. The chance to come across Po-210 in my tea I would estimate at 10E-3000. Well, I have not been a spy for a superpower. 

I have some more comments on this topic - watch RADSAFE.

Bestg regards,

Franz

---- Larry Addis <ajess at clemson.edu> schrieb:
> Yes, I don't remember the numbers and I'm no novice, but I was surprised to
> find out just how radiotoxic and what a small quantity of Po-210 it would
> take to do the job. It's pretty easy to get 15 mCi of Po-210 many times
> over. Betty Crocker chemistry wild extract the poison relatively easily. It
> would have never crossed my mind before Litvinenko.
> 
> I had forgotten the movie.  I'll look it up.
> 
> LA 
> 
Franz Schoenhofer, PhD, MinRat
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
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