Re: Po-210 in tobacco

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Dear Kjell,



I disagree with your disagreement....,..



-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Kjell A. Johansen <kajohans@powercom.net>

An: radsafe <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Sonntag, 01. Juli 2001 02:17

Betreff: Po-210 in tobacco





>Franz,

>I have to disagree.  The Po-210 in tobacco does come from the air. The

>mechanism is as follows:

>Radon diffuses from the ground.  As the radon decays it becomes

>charged.  The charged atom is attached to small airborne particles

>called Aiken particles.  The particle assumes the charge of the charged

>atom.  Now, the underside of the tobacco leaf has many fine, hair like

>appendages which results in a large surface area for charged particle

>attachment.  The charged Aiken particles become attached to this "fuzz."

>

>Sorry, but I do not remember the reference from which I got the

>mechanism.



No reference necessary, because the fact that radon decay products will be

attached to leafy vegetables (of which tobacco might be one....) as well as

to any other surfaces like the walls in ones home is a fact, which needs not

be discussed.



O.K., now we are in the situation of "attobequerels of plutonium per cubic

square kilometer have been measured in air; plutonium is the most deadly

(!!!!) element in the world, therefore breathing this air will result in the

extinction of the human race."



Let me return to science. Radon-222 emanating from soil will be to some

extent in equilibrium with its short lived daughter products.

"Equilibium-factor" probably int he range of 0.5. The short lived daughters

of interest are Po-218 and Po-214 with half lifes of 3 minutes and 165*10E-6

seconds. They are responsible for the  possible damage of lung tissue.

Pb-210 has a half life of 22.2  years and its daugher Po-210 a half life of

138.4 days. Pb-210 is present in ambient air in an extremely low

concentration. Unfortunately I have to use for my RADSAFE communications my

private e-mail address, so I do not have the ambient Po-210 concentrations

by hand, but qualitatively speaking it will be extremely low, if not

negligible from the point of radiation protection. I know very well that

data are used in research for air masses displacements and research of

transfer of air masses. Due to the extremely low concentrations of Pb-210 in

air the foliar uptake can be only extremely small.



Oh, sorry, I made a mistake. You are talking about Po-210 uptake and not

Pb-210, the long lived radionuclide, as I did. Anything known about the

concentrations of Pb-210 compared to Po-210 in air?



What about removal of this incredibly low Po-210 (Pb-210????) -amount from

the plant by rain or irrigation?



Once again I can only refer to common sense and the many orders of magnitude

I have experience. If there is a hard challenge I might go deeper into the

question,. In the meantime I would remind every smoker that he or she is

subject to highly enhanced risk of dying from lung cancer - induced by tar

and policyclic constituents, Po-210 being a contributor.



Happy smoking!



Franz







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