Re: Toxic Trivia

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 08:19 09.02.2000 -0600, you wrote:
----------------------------------------------
>Recently while reviewing a web reference for Material Safety Data Sheets I
>visited an excellent resource, http://www.ilpi.com
>
>The following question appears in the site's entertaining "Toxic Trivia"
test.
>
>"2.One of the deadliest radioactive isotopes is 210Po (Polonium-210). It is
>a strong alpha emitter with a half-life of 128 days. Polonium metal is also
>rather
>volatile, with a melting point of 255 degrees C, making it a particularly
>deadly component of tobacco smoke (inhaling alpha emitters is not a very
>good idea).

Po-210 is regarded even more toxic than Ra-226 or Ra-228, not to talk about
Pu-239 which is - compared to these radionuclides - relatively harmless,
except in the news media, where it is as you know the most deadly agent in
the world......

It might be that polonium metal is very volatile, but I doubt (!!! this
means that it is not possible) that it occurs in the metallic form in
tobacco! 



>Fortunately, polonium is found only in minute amounts in Nature.
>
>Polonium is so radioactive that a 0.50 gram sample will reach temperatures
>greater than 500 degrees all by itself. 

I wonder, who has ever produced 0.50 gram of Po-210 to verify this statement! 

It is far more easy to produce HCN in sufficient amounts to kill thousands
of people than to produce enough Po-210 and to adminster it properly. The
possible danger of a "deadly" substance is not only a question of a
theoretical toxicity, but also dependent on the probability that people
could be affected by it. To demonstrate this concept I take the liberty of
a drastic comparison: If 1 kg of solid gold would fall down from three
meters height onto my head I would be dead. But I have never experienced
gold falling down even close to my head.....

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

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