[ RadSafe ] Po-210 in the news

[Steven Dapra]

July 6

         Link to Ely Karmon's biography at his organization.

http://www.ict.org.il/Biographies/DrElyKarmon/tabid/161/Default.aspx

         From the Jerusalem Post article linked below:

"And yet, eight years after Arafat’s death, the 
Swiss scientists reported finding polonium levels 
of 54 millibecquerels (mBq) and 180 
millibecquerels on his belonging, considered to be high levels."

         By my reckoning, the former is 0.001 
pCi, and the latter is 0.005 pCi.  If that is 
correct, how can levels this low be 
detected?  The error bars must be huge. . . .

         From the linked article:

"Responding to an Al Jazeera report published 
Wednesday – which said that researchers at the 
Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, . . . "

         This CNN article has a two sentence 
quote from the director of the Institut:

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-04/middleeast/world_meast_switzerland-arafat-polonium_1_body-exhumed-francois-bochud-suha-arafat?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST

         Another, longer, CNN article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/04/world/meast/switzerland-arafat-polonium/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

         Note:  this article says "mega" 
becquerels per liter, and says it three 
times.  The Jerusalem Post article says "milli" becquerels.

         Too much conjecture and uncertainty, too few facts.

Steven Dapra


At 07:42 PM 7/6/2012, you wrote:
>Steven,
>
>Here's an article that reports a claim that the Po-210 was planted.....
>http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=276447
>
>"Swiss scientists reported finding polonium levels of 54 millibecquerels
>(mBq) and 180 millibecquerels on his belonging, considered to be high
>levels."
>"Because of the half-life of the substance, the conclusion is that the
>polonium is much more fresh,"
>
>
>....is Dr. Ely Karmon or an associate on Radsafe ?
>
>Thnx
>
>  Jaro
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
>[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Steven Dapra
>Sent: July-06-12 9:24 PM
>To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Po-210 in the news
>
>July 6
>
>          I did the exercise.  It's 21 half-lives.  After that many
>half-lives wouldn't a radionuclide be somewhat difficult to detect?  By my
>reckoning, that's 0.477 x 10 -6 parts remaining.
>
>Steven Dapra
>
>
>At 09:50 AM 7/6/2012, you wrote:
> >The fraction of any polonium-210 (138-day half-life) left on clothing
> >or other personal belongings from that allegedly given to Yasser
> >Arafat, who died eight years ago, is left as an exercise for
> >the reader.   This does not include any "salting the mine."
> >
> >Rick Strickert
> >Austin, TX