Come Obama! Polonium 210 prescribed for Indian masses!
Palash Biswas
Oil prices have fallen by 50 percent since June after OPEC decided not to cut output in response to lower prices [Reuters]
Come Obama! Polonium 210 prescribed for Indian masses!
The sharp decline in global crude oil prices gives India a rare "window of opportunity" to put its fiscal house in order and carry out the much-needed economic reforms like cutting down oil subsidy, according to a top World Bank official.
It may not rain on President Barack Obama's parade when he comes to New Delhi this month for the Republic Day celebrations at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
But, judging by the smog cloaking the capital on Thursday as motorcycle stunt men rehearsed for the Jan. 26 event, the city's notorious air pollution could be a problem.
Come Obama! Polonium 210 prescribed for Indian masses!
Come Obama!Crude oil prices have fallen below $50 per barrel for the first time since 2009, hit by OPEC's production stance, oversupply, weak demand and the strong dollar.
European Brent oil dived to $49.81 a barrel on Wednesday, a 5-year-low. New York crude had already slumped under $50 on Monday.Oil has dropped about 50 percent since June on worries about weak demand and a decision by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC) not to cut output in response to lower prices.
We are selling off our natural resources.We are selling off our freedom,sovereignty and economy.It is complete FDI Raj for which US President Barack Obama comes India neglecting the zionist ethnic cleansing carnival of the Hindu Imperialism.
It is the Dollar for which is breaking in.
It is the Dollar for which the bell tolls.
It is the Dollar for which Indian Prime Minister is making in dismissing made in whatsoever.
It is the dollar for which we killed our production system.
It is the Dollar for which agrarian crisis is all about.
It is the dollar for which Indian business is e tailing all about.
It is the Dollar which sets topmost priority for service sector stopping the production.
It is the Dollar for which every law is amended and the constitution has been made irrelevant.
It is the Dollar for which we changed our politics.Changed our foreign policy and our diplomacy.
It is the Dollar for which legends and myths replace the history.
It is the dollar which means sedition in vogue.
It is Dollar valued zero takes away everything and gifts us polonium 210.
Yes,come Obama,India masses have been prescribed polonium 210.
We tend to kill the nature and humanity as we happen to be the subject of an emerging free Market economy.Believe it or not, polonium-210 is one of the radioactive materials found naturally in the human body because of low levels in our environment.Yet the same substance has found frightening use as a deadly poison capable of causing a painful death, and widespread terror.
Yes,I am talking about the polonium-210 which is the basis of belated FIR in Sunanda Pushkar case.The radioactive isotope is in abundance in India now just because we have opted for nuclear energy and nuclear reactors are the popular landmarks in dense population countrywide.
Next time,it might not be a singular case like some Sunanda,It might turn out to be a greater tragedy than Bhopal as Nuclear reactors are not that safe as claimed neither we may stop the smuggling of the radioactive isotope which happens to be thousand times deadly than cyanide.
India will stick to its plans to open up the coal industry to private firms and sell a stake in state-run Coal India Ltd(COAL.NS), despite the resistance by mine workers, the country's coal and power minister said on Thursday.
The five mineworker unions of the world's largest coal miner called off a five-day strike in its second day on Wednesday, after coal and power minister Piyush Goyal assured them a committee would be formed to address their concerns.
The strike had been seen as a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve to push through tough economic reforms.
Mineworkers fear the entry of private companies will pressure Coal India to reduce costs, eventually leading to pay and job cuts at the inefficient state behemoth that accounts for about 80 percent of the country's total output.
Coal fuels 60 percent of India's power production and worker strikes have previously crippled power plants.
"If they have any concerns they are always open to further discussions and dialogue." Goyal told a news conference.
"(But) there is absolutely no change in any of our plans."
Goyal said increasing competition is key to meeting demand for cheap coal and realising Prime Minister Modi's goal of supplying round-the-clock power to India's 1.2 billion people by 2019.
The country still has 280 million people living without power in 56 million homes, Goyal said.
In late December, Modi resorted to a rarely-used executive decree to implement coal reforms that would allow an auction of coal mines and lead to private companies commercially mining the fuel for the first time in 42 years.
The government is also looking to divest a 10 percent stake in Coal India in a sell-off drive to meet its budgetary needs.
Goyal said he hoped the formation of the committee will help Coal India workers air their views so that they "do not have to go on strike again".
S.Q Zama, secretary general of the Indian National Mineworkers Federation, said that though Goyal did not agree to consider reversing the decision on commercial mining, workers were relieved that the government will not fully privatise Coal India as many had feared.
The first two days of the strike led to a production loss of about 1 million tonnes for Coal India, which normally produces about 1.4 million tonnes a day during this time of year.
Goyal said the unionised miners have promised to help make up for the loss.
The U.S. embassy denied media reports that the outdoor programme for Obama's visit, his second after a trip in 2010, would be curtailed if the bad air persisted.
The embassy's monitoring station recorded an Air Quality Index reading of 252 on Thursday, making the city's air "very unhealthy", according to a scale devised by the Environmental Protection Agency.
That's enough, the EPA says, to cause "significant aggravation of heart or lung disease and premature mortality in persons with cardiopulmonary disease and the elderly," and a "significant increase in respiratory effects in the general population."
Weather forecasters expect the index reading to be around 200 when Obama visits, in line with recent years, although accurate predictions will not be available until three or four days before.
Indian defence and foreign ministry officials say there are no plans to change the parade, a military-dominated affair which stretches from the president's palace to India Gate, a memorial to unknown soldiers.
The sharp decline in global crude oil prices gives India a rare "window of opportunity" to put its fiscal house in order and carry out the much-needed economic reforms like cutting down oil subsidy, according to a top World Bank official.
Kaushik Basu, senior vice-president and chief economist of the World Bank, said the reforms could put the country back on higher growth rate and prepare it for any global economic crisis.
Basu, who was Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian government before his current role, said the decline in oil prices is going to have differential impact on different countries.
"But for a country like India, it is really an opportunity to use this window of low oil prices to put in fiscal consolidation, to put in other kinds of reforms and to get growth back up," Basu said.
"I just hope that India will take advantage of the low oil prices, which we expect will remain, unlike in 2008 when the oil prices fell and bounced back within six months. This time we expect oil prices to remain moderately low at least over the next year and may be more," he said.
"India must take this opportunity to put in fiscal reforms and growth. India is already growing at the rate of five per cent, which is not bad, but it can get the growth going even faster," he said.
Noting that India does spend a lot of money on oil subsidy, Basu said if at this point of time the subsidy was cut down, price would not rise sharply.
When oil prices are very high, cutting down the subsidy results in sharp increase in oil prices.
"Today is a great opportunity to cut down on these subsidies. This would cause price to rise only a little bit and in some case may be not even rise at all given that global prices are very low," he said.
Such a move by the Indian Government, he observed, would immediately create fiscal space.
"If that space can be used to boost investment so that India has better infrastructure, the country would go back to the kind of growth it used to experience till a few years ago," Basu said.
Basu, just back here from a two-week visit to India, said that his impression is that the government is aware of these possibilities and challenges.
"I am very hopeful and optimistic that especially at the time of the budget we will see some of the progressive reforms being put in place," he said.
He was of the view that India must take full benefit of this "window of opportunity", as one does not know how long this low oil price would last.
"Let's say if it stays (low) for two years, if we are able to put in place some structural fiscal reforms, then even when the opportunity is gone, then there are other drivers – our productivity has gone up, built up better ports, better roads and transport and we are growing faster. That is what we should try to do. I am hopeful that the government will do it," Basu said.
"From my two weeks in India, I got the impression that the Government is gearing up for some change," he said.
He described the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a "very major" move by the National Democratic Alliance government.
"On the whole, I am very optimistic that the reform would go through now," he said.
Responding to a question on what should be the priority of the government at this stage, Basu said India ought to focus on two big things.
"One is infrastructural investment. Most political parties do not give emphasis to that because the benefit to that comes with a long lap...five/six years later. But it is in India's interest to work on our roads, on our ports, infrastructure, rural irrigation," he said.
"Number two is bureaucratic costs. India ought to have a much more efficient system of business ethos...that you get your permissions quicker. Of course, any sophisticated economy would have regulations. You can't do without regulations. But the regulatory mechanism ought to be quick and efficient," he said.
"So if these two major reforms India can work on in the next two years, while this window of opportunity is there, the rewards of that, we can see in the next 10 years 15 years," Basu said.
Appreciative of the steps being taken by the Modi government with regard to ease of doing business in India, Basu said it is possible that India could improve in its ranking in the World Bank's annual 'Ease of Doing Business' list.
"India currently is 142nd among 189 countries. Lot of this requires nothing but a determined look at our regulatory structure. So you will have to appoint bodies with very strict instructions that in things like electricity application and permission paper work, India should be able to do it much faster. To start a business, India should be able to do it much quicker.
"Contract enforcement need to be much quicker. For these you do not need oil or resources. You need determination and a professional body on some of these regulations," he said.
"I am very happy that the Indian Government is taking an interest in this. And if we can move from the 142nd position to the top 100 in the next few years, you would immediately be able to see an impact on the productivity and the development," Basu said.
On the creation of 'Niti Ayog' to replace the Planning Commission, Basu praised the effort to involve chief ministers of States.
"This is a very welcome development," he said.
When asked to evaluate the performance of the Modi Government since May in the area of economy, Basu said: "Frankly, it is too early to judge. Economy is a very complex body. Some of the statements that have been made are very welcome.
"These are in the direction in which the economic policy ought to move. But we have seen just a few moves – GST is one. Some of the ordinances are a welcome move. But we have to wait and see," Basu said.
2015 is not 2012: The fiscal deficit shouldn't be FM's main worry now
It is said that every general is preparing to fight the last war. The same could apply to some macroeconomists and economic writers as well.
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At a time when growth is flagging and private investment is hard to come by, it is obvious that public investment has to step up to the plate. While everybody accepts the logic of this assertion, they are inclined to hedge this with talk about the dangers of a higher fiscal deficit.
We should worry about the fiscal deficit – but later, after growth revives. Right now, the issue is a further tapering down of growth in a deflationary external environment.
Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar, writing in The Economic Times yesterday (7 January), accepts the logic of increasing public investment in India, but says that this should only be done by raising extra money from disinvestment and spectrum auctions, not by raising the fiscal deficit. This, even though he himself accepts that India's government debt has been falling as a share of GDP to 68.5 percent, thanks to past inflation.
A Mint editorial also warns against easing up on fiscal targets, even though it does not disagree with the need for more public investment to revive growth. Quoting from the Mid-Year Economic Analysis, which makes a case for "a counter-cyclical but counter-factual" fiscal policy due to relatively low debt-to-GDP ratios, the editorial argues that while debt may have been deflated by inflation, "the argument is a bit weaker when it comes to fiscal deficit. If higher fiscal deficits don't matter, then surely the central bank should not have worried about credible consolidation in 2013-14 when it stoutly refused to lower policy rates. The fact is that even the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, hardly a paragon of fiscal virtue, was forced to reduce expenditures even if revenue and tax targets were beyond its reach by that hour."
Clearly, economists worry about whether the government is going to cut loose on fiscal deficits next year. And certainly, it is no one's argument that fiscal deficits do not matter at all. They do. The question is: do they matter as much right now when the objective conditions have changed dramatically from the time UPA was forced to acknowledge it and cut plan spending drastically for three years in a row, reducing growth?
The answer is a clear no.
What's different from the situation in 2011-12 and now are the following.
One, inflation was raging at that point. Not now.
Two, oil and commodity prices were very high, and impacting our current account deficit. Now, it is the other way around.
Three, two years ago, the world economy seemed to be stabilising. Not now. The world is now in the throes of possible deflation, especially in Europe and Japan, and central banks are busy turning on the money tap to prevent inflation from turning negative. Countries are keeping their currencies down to remain competitive.
Four, in a scenario of collapsing world growth and potential deflation, it is unlikely that India alone will see a return to higher inflation by easing up on fiscal consolidation. In fact, the battle against inflation has probably been won, thanks not just to cheap oil, but the moderation in minimum support prices (MSPs) of late. Economist Surjit Bhalla argues in The Indian Express that the decline in MSP inflation, which also impacts inflation in milk, fruits and vegetables (which has been our bugbear so far), is the reason why overall inflation is now under control. He noted: "A long historical analysis (since the late 1970s) suggests that each 10 percent increase in MSP increases headline inflation by 3 percentage points……The decline in MSP inflation between 2013 and 2014 was 10.2 percentage points. And 30 percent of this decline is 3.1 percent - i.e. on the basis of MSP alone, headline inflation should have declined to…7 percent. Actual observed year-on-year inflation January to November was 7.4 percent! It is time that RBI declared victory on inflation."
Five, if external (export) growth prospects are going to be low, it stands to reason that India must find its growth drivers within. This is the logic of increasing public investment, since no one else can step into the breach.
Six, in a situation where many countries are trying to keep their currencies down in order to avoid an export disadvantage, India cannot be an outlier by trying to be tight both on the monetary and fiscal fronts. After two years of money tightening, Indian real interest rates are already very positive. The fiscal tightness imposed by UPA (the right thing to do in 2012) is now strangling growth.
The west too has seen too much monetary accommodation and too little fiscal expansion, especially in public infrastructure and productive areas, says Nouriel Roubini, professor at NYU's Stern School of Business. In a recent column, he wrote: "The cause of the latest currency turmoil is clear: In an environment of private and public deleveraging from high debts, monetary policy has become the only available tool to boost demand and growth. Fiscal austerity has exacerbated the impact of deleveraging by exerting a direct and indirect drag on growth. Lower public spending reduces aggregate demand, while declining transfers and higher taxes reduce disposable income and thus private consumption."
The only logical way forward in a situation where growth cannot be led by exports is to inflate back home. This does not mean letting the fiscal deficit rip, but merely slowing down the future deficit cuts. A large slashing of fiscal deficits will kill growth and make the fiscal deficit larger in future, not smaller. No growth means not enough tax revenues. Even spectrum sales and disinvestment proceeds will fall in such a scenario.
The war against a bloated fiscal deficit was yesterday's war; today's war is about reviving growth. The time to worry about fiscal deficits is later, when growth revives, unused capacities are used up, and inflation starts creeping up. But in a world going down the tubes, that seems less of a risk than a further slowdown.
Time to reflate, carefully.
Fast facts on polonium-210
Here are some key points about polonium-210. More detail and supporting information is in the body of this article.
- Polonium-210 is a rare radioactive metal discovered by Marie Curie in the late 19th century.
- It has a half-life of 138 days, decaying to lead.
- During its radioactive decay, polonium-210 emits alpha particles.
- The alpha particles are a very high-energy form of radiation but do not travel far - they can be blocked by a few sheets of paper, and lose all their energy after travelling through a few centimeters of air.
- Polonium-210 is therefore poisonous only once it has entered the body.
- It is powerfully and lethally toxic - by weight of toxin, polonium poisoning is billions of times more potent than cyanide poisoning. Polonium is one of the most toxic substances known.
- It would be very difficult to obtain polonium for poisoning, necessitating access to a nuclear reactor. But once acquired, polonium is relatively safe to transport and hide from detection.
- Polonium-210 as a poison must be breathed in, swallowed, or gain entry to the body through broken skin.
- A high enough dose of polonium by mouth will lead to acute radiation syndrome - the severity of which, and time to illness and death, is related to the size of the radiation dose absorbed.
- The liver, bone marrow and other soft tissues are particularly sensitive to absorption of polonium radiation. The acute radiation syndrome is signaled by vomiting, hair loss, and reductions in white blood cells.
- Specialist radiation detectors are needed to diagnose contamination with polonium-210.
- Treatment is limited to supportive care against the effects of the radiation, and reversing the poisoning is limited - and confined to cases that are identified early enough.
- The outcome between death or recovery is largely down to the size of the radiation dose absorbed by the body.
- Former spy Alexander Litvinenko was assassinated by polonium poisoning in London in 2006. British police identified that the polonium-210 had been introduced via a teapot.
- The UK's Litvinenko Inquiry into the murder is holding public hearings in 2015.
It has to be established whether Sunanda had been injected polonium 210 at all.But the nation and the people,the nature and humanity,all have been inflicted with polonium 210 and it is perhaps a Bhopal Gas Tragedy nationwide quite unnoticed.
Obama is coming to celebrate Zionist ethnic cleansing carnival hosted by Hindu imperialism and the dollar hegemony is breaking down which is rather more dangerous for the US Dollar linked Indian economy and the volatile indices would tell the story.
In a sensational revelation, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi on Tuesday confirmed that the wife of former Union minister Shashi Tharoor, Sunanda Pushkar, who was found dead on January 17, 2014 in her hotel room in Delhi, had been murdered.
Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said: 'Polonium 210, a radioactive isotope, is suspected to be the poison that may have caused her death. The viscera samples may now be sent to an FBI lab in the US or a lab in the UK.'
So what exactly is Polonium 210 and how dangerous can it be?
Polonium first hit the headlines when it was used to kill KGB agent-turned-Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
There were also rumors that the death of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was due to acute Polonium poisoning.
WHAT IS POLONIUM?
Polonium-210 is one of the world's rarest elements, discovered in 1898 by scientists Marie and Pierre Curie and named in honor of her country of origin, Poland. It occurs naturally in very low concentrations in the Earth's crust and also is produced artificially in nuclear reactors. In small amounts, it has legitimate industrial uses, mainly in devices to eliminate static electricity.
IS IT DANGEROUS?
Very. If ingested, it is lethal in extremely small doses. Less than 1 gram (0.04 ounces) of the silver powder is sufficient to kill. A 2007 study by radiation experts from Britain's Health Protection Agency concluded that once polonium-210 is deposited in the bloodstream, its potent effects are nearly impossible to stop. A poisoning victim would experience multiple organ failure as alpha radiation particles bombard the liver, kidneys and bone marrow from within. The symptoms shown by Litvinenko — nausea, hair loss, throat swelling and pallor — are also typical.
WHO CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON IT?
The good news — not too many people. The element can be a byproduct of the chemical processing of uranium, but usually is made artificially in a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator. These nuclear facilities are monitored and tightly regulated under international agreements.
John Croft, a retired British radiation expert who worked on the Litvinenko case, said a dose large enough to kill would likely have to come from a government with either civilian or military nuclear capabilities. That category includes Russia — producer of the polonium believed to have killed Litvinenko — and Arafat's foe, Israel. But it also includes dozens of other nations, including the United States.
WHY WOULD IT BE ATTRACTIVE TO ASSASSINS?
Polonium makes a good weapon. Its large alpha particles of radiation do not penetrate the skin and don't set off radiation detectors, so it is relatively easy to smuggle across international borders. Polonium can be ingested through a wound or inhaled — but the surest method would be to have the victim consume it in food or drink. Litvinenko drank tea laced with polonium during a meeting at a luxury London hotel.
WHO HAS IT KILLED?
Polonium poisoning is so rare that it took doctors several weeks to diagnose Litvinenko's illness and security experts struggled to think of a previous case. More than five years after Litvinenko's death, no one has been arrested. British prosecutors have named ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi as their chief suspect, but Russia refuses to hand him over.
Some speculate that the Curies' daughter Irene, who died of leukemia, may have developed the disease after accidentally being exposed to polonium in the laboratory.
Israeli author Michal Karpin has claimed that the cancer deaths of several Israeli scientists were the result of a leak at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1957. Israeli officials have never acknowledged a connection.
(With inputs from AP)
Polonium is a radioactive chemical element (atomic number 84) that was discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie.
Polonium is one of the most toxic substances known to humankind.
Being a Polish chemist, Curie named the element after her home country, and her discovery won her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, which was also a recognition of her discovery of another element, radium.10
In its natural state at room temperature, polonium is a solid metal with a silver color. Polonium-210 is one of 25 known radioactive isotopes of polonium and it has a half-life of 138 days (meaning half its radioactivity dies away in this time), decaying into a new, stable metal - lead.
Polonium is very rare, as Marie Curie found when she discovered it in a source of uranium known as pitchblende. As little as about 100 micrograms (0.0001 grams) of polonium occurs in one ton of uranium ore.
Curie's pioneering work, however, produced enough polonium to fatally expose her daughter Irene in a lab accident - she went on to suffer leukemia, dying at the age of 59.11
Modern production of the substance is usually done by creating another radioactive element in a nuclear reactor, which itself then decays to polonium-210.
Polonium-210 is abbreviated to Po-210, (210)Po, or 210Po.
Beneficial uses of polonium include:
- Taking advantage of the high heat for its relative light weight that is generated during its decay - instruments in Russian lunar landing craft were kept warm with it
- Application in commercial devices to remove static electricity, in which polonium is usually electroplated onto other metals.
How dangerous is polonium-210?
Hydrogen cyanide is well known to be highly poisonous, but in terms of the amount of power to its punch, it is far less toxic than polonium-210. Matched milligram for milligram, the radioactive isotope is several orders of magnitude more toxic.8
Polonium is one of the most toxic substances known6 - and estimated to be 250 billion times more toxic than hydrocyanic acid (hydrogen cyanide dissolved in water, as used in fumigation).11
Toxicologists estimate that one gram of polonium could be enough to kill 50 million people, on top of another 50 million who would become ill, and that in the case of Litvinenko, less than one millionth of that amount would have been enough to cause his death (less than a microgram).8
How could an assassin use polonium-210 for poisoning?
Clearly, polonium-210 is extremely dangerous - but it is also extremely difficult to obtain in the first place. Its commercial application onto devices that remove static is done was such a way that it would not be feasible to separate the polonium for use as a poison.9,12
Even buying pure polonium from legitimate sources would not be feasible since it is sold in such tiny quantities - 15,000 orders would have to be placed to enable enough for poisoning.9,12
Once somehow acquired, probably from a nuclear industrial process, polonium is not particularly dangerous to carry around, however - because its high-energy radiation can be blocked by a relatively thin barrier for a radioactive material, including by skin. Alpha particles usually lose all their energy after traveling through air for just a few centimeters.11,13
Added to the way in which the high energy of alpha radiation is dumped so quickly and damagingly, the way in which polonium can be transported easily and safely without detection is perhaps one of the attractions of its potential as a poison.
On the question of who was behind Alexander Litvinenko's murder by polonium poisoning, the perpetrator would have needed access to "a reactor capable of producing and irradiating materials, and a radiochemical laboratory," according to quotes in New Scientist from Professor Nick Priest, one of few UK experts to have worked with polonium-210.3
Once produced in a nuclear reactor, the radioactive isotope needs to reach the intended target of poisoning comparatively quickly.
The 138 days for polonium-210 to lose half of its radioactivity means that the specimen used to kill Litvinenko would need to have been made relatively recently.9,11
Finally, when polonium-210 has reached its target, the poison must be introduced into the body to do its fatal damage internally.8,11
The high-energy alpha particles are harmless externally - they are blocked by a few sheets of paper, or the top layer of the skin, the epidermis. But deadly tissue damage can be done via:8,13
- Inhalation
- Ingestion, or
- Entry through skin abrasions or wounds.
Alexander Litvinenko was polonium-poisoned by ingestion - via a cup of tea, which would have hidden the heat generated by the radioisotope.
Before polonium-210 becomes dangerous to the human body, it must therefore be introduced internally. This can be through broken skin, and the substance can be breathed into the lungs. However, the focus of its effects on the body here is the other main route into the body, by ingestion - or poisoning by mouth, the way in which Litvinenko became contaminated.
Before the 2006 assassination, polonium-201 was anticipated only narrowly as a potential means of murder, but there has been a growth in the expert literature about this kind of poisoning since the event.14
After being taken in by mouth, polonium-210 is initially concentrated in red blood cells, followed by the liver, kidneys, bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract, and gonads (testicles or ovaries).6
By mouth, polonium-210 is absorbed more readily than some other alpha-emitting radionuclides.8Once absorbed into the blood, polonium is then distributed through the body mainly in soft tissues and roughly as follows:6,8
- 30% to the liver
- 10% to red bone marrow
- 10% to the kidney
- 5% to the spleen
- The remainder to the wider body, including the skin, particularly the hair follicles.
Polonium is a group 1 carcinogen - that is, it is known to cause cancer, rather than merely suspected to.6 When inhaled, for example, polonium-210 causes lung cancer.13
Environmental levels of polonium are extremely low and harmless to human health, and very low levels of the substance are found naturally in the body (tobacco plants concentrate the radioisotope though - so smokers have higher levels).1
Insufficient amounts of polonium, however, alpha radiation can be lethal within days or weeks, with different organs and tissues greatly varying in their sensitivity to the alpha radiation damage. Most sensitive is the blood-making (hematopoietic) tissue in the bone marrow, and the lining of the gut is also vulnerable.8
The bone marrow failure is accompanied by damage to other organs where polonium-210 concentrations are high, so that rescuing the bone marrow may not be enough to save someone - the failure of other organs can prove fatal.15
Why is alpha radiation so toxic?
As polonium is distributed around the body, it leaves a trail of reactive radicals because it steals electrons from any molecule in its path.9
Damage to DNA from the alpha particle radiation can cause apoptosis - self-destructing cells - and even low-level DNA damage can cause genetic changes that affect cellular replication.9
How much polonium is needed to cause death?
Scientists have a number of ways to quantify amounts of radiation exposure.
Polonium is extremely dangerous when inhaled, ingested, or introduced through broken skin. It is relatively safe to transport though, and its radiation will not penetrate the top layer of the skin.
The radiation given off, emitted, by a quantity of polonium is measured in a unit called Bq (for becquerel, the rate at which a radioactive material decays in terms of the number of disintegrations of its nucleus per second; a GBq, a gigabecquerel is 100,000,000 disintegrations per second).16
The amount of radiation absorbed by the tissues, meanwhile, is measured in a unit called Gy (no abbreviation needed).16
Scientists estimate that the equivalent of between 0.1-0.3 GBq or more of polonium absorbed into the blood of an adult male would be likely to be fatal within one month.15
Assuming 10% of ingested polonium would be absorbed into the blood, 1-3 GBq or more would need to be swallowed for the poison to be deadly15 - equivalent to a tiny amount of polonium, andjust a few micrograms would be enough.3
Diagnosis and tests for polonium poisoning
The problem with polonium-210 poisoning is that there would need to be suspicion of the radioactive isotope being responsible for a case of illness before it could be specifically tested, which requires special equipment generally found in specialized laboratories.13
Lessons learned since 2006 - given by experts in preparedness for the potential threat of nuclear terrorism - outline that not all standard Geiger-Muller radiation detectors can identify the alpha radiation of polonium.8
Special wands or sensor attachments are usually needed for detectors, say the experts at the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, adding that screening would need to be routine, rather than relying on what tends to be a low diagnostic suspicion for an event of polonium poisoning (there was a delay in diagnosing Litvinenko).8
Signs and symptoms of polonium poisoning
The signs and symptoms of poisoning by polonium depend on the dose of exposure, but if this is high enough, acute radiation syndrome (ARS) will follow.17
The course of ARS is accelerated in line with the quantity of polonium that was used to poison the person,17 and with the subsequent level of radiation absorbed by their tissues, measured in Gy units.16
Absorbed radiation levels above 0.7 Gy trigger acute radiation syndrome, with three or four phases.17
Typical of all forms of acute radiation syndrome are vomiting followed by hair loss and bone marrow failure, and these features presenting without another explanation should alert emergency doctors to the possibility of polonium poisoning.17
The first, prodromal, phase may appear anytime from minutes to days after the poisoning, producing:8,17
- Nausea and vomiting
- Anorexia
- Lowered white blood cell count (lymphopenia)
The higher the dose of radiation, the faster the onset of the prodromal phase and the more rapid the reduction in white blood cell (WBC, lymphocyte) count.17 If gastrointestinal symptoms appear within two hours of ingestion, the outlook, prognosis, is poor.8
The second, latent, phase, if it happens, produces some improvement in the clinical picture,17except that bone marrow damage continues to result in lower WBC and platelet counts.8
Again, longer latent phases are seen as a result of lower doses of polonium, whereas there may be no latent phase at all in severe cases of acute radiation syndrome.8
The third phase relates to the type of illness suffered as a result of the particular body system affected, and is dependent on the dose of radiation:8,17
- The bone marrow syndrome is characteristic at doses of 0.7-10.0 Gy
- Gastrointestinal syndrome at 8.0-10.0 Gy
- Cardiovascular and central nervous system (CNS) syndromes develop at very high radiation doses above 20 Gy.
The CNS syndrome is always irreversible and leads to death. The high doses of radiation needed can result in confusion, convulsion and coma within minutes of the poisoning.
The fourth phase of acute radiation syndrome is simply the event of death or of recovery. Failure to recover means death within weeks to months, and survival can mean many months before a full recovery.
Treatment of polonium poisoning
The best hope for treating polonium poisoning, if it is a reversible case, results from prompt diagnosis, but someone poisoned may not know it, and cardinal symptoms may be delayed. In the case of Litvinenko, his previous occupation as a spy did not initially become clear, because he withheld it and/or doctors failed to ask.8
The final outcome between recovery or death from acute radiation syndrome is, however, mostly decided by the size of the radiation dose absorbed.8,17 It is recommended that a toxicologist - a specialist in poisoning - is brought in to help with the care.14
When polonium poisoning has been confirmed, supportive care is aimed at:17
- Control of symptoms (symptomatic treatment)
- Prevention or treatment of infections (which are more likely because of lower WBC counts)
- Blood and platelet transfusions when needed.
If ingestion is known to have happened very recently, evacuating it from the stomach by gastric aspiration or lavage may help.17
Drug therapy is also a possibility that may reduce radiation poisoning, using chelating agents such as dimercaprol (also called British Anti-Lewisite), or penicillamine.17,18
Chelation is an approach against poisoning with heavy metals. Dimercaprol is recommended in attempts to chelate polonium. The drug is also used against poisoning by the heavy metals mercury, gold, bismuth, antimony, thallium, and lead18 - and it was used in World War Two to minimize the risk of injury or death from Lewisite, a highly toxic chemical warfare agent based on another heavy metal, arsenic.19
British inquiry into Litvinenko's death
The UK's Litvinenko inquiry is opening public hearings in London in January 2015. It has published the aims of its investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko - to:5
- "Ascertain...who the deceased was; how, when and where he came by his death"
- "Identify...where responsibility for the death lies"
- "Make such recommendations as may seem appropriate."
Written by Markus MacGill
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