To situate the reader begin in 2006 and rescued news of that year,
we find the death of a former KGB secret agent in a London hospital under
suspicious circumstances, namely poisoned. The poison that ended his life,
a radioactive isotope called "polonium 210", is much more widespread
than we can imagine.
The world population smokes
some six trillion cigarettes a year, each
containing a small amount of polonium 210 that ends in the lungs. For a smoker of a pack and a
half daily, inhaled throughout the year to radiation equivalent to 300 chest
radiographs.
Note that polonium is not snuff the primary carcinogen (produces 2%
of lung cancers due to snuff), there are others such as (and to name a few)
benzo-alpha-pyrene diractemente acts on nitrogenous bases of DNA and produce
mutations changing pairs. But unlike others, polonium,
could be eradicated in a relatively simple and avoid the thousands of deaths
that occur each year directly related. This fact,
as the reader can imagine, it was not unknown for the tobacco they know their
existence long before the author of this blog was born, about 50 years. They could do something but
decided to do nothing and keep it secret.
Discovery of polonium 210 in the snuff
Like many other discoveries, for example X-ray, was obtained
almost by accident. In the
60s and during the crisis of Cold War and space race of radioactivity effects
on health have much interest among experts.
The radio-chemical Vilma R. Hunt and his team had developed
a technique to measure very low levels of radium and polonium. Naturally, due to the restless
nature and curious scientist Hunt took some samples of ash from a cigarette
from one of his companions and analyzed.
The analysis results were astounding. Contrary to what I expected
found no traces of polonium in ash samples, this left her shocked, because, no
organic material analyzed by Hunt, including plants had produced negative
results for polonium if the radius was present . However, and here is the answer
to the combustion temperature of snuff, polonium
is volatilized. Hunt
concluded that absent polonium should go to smoke and, consequently, to the
smoker's lungs.
In 1965 and radiation biologist Dr. John B. Little examined lung tissue
from smokers looking for traces of polonium. The task was not easy for one
side to remove tissue samples was too invasive smokers alive with the bodies
the problem is that the lining of the lung resolves within three or four hours
of the death, which forced to suck immediately after the patient's death.
Little just demonstrating the presence of polonium in specific
areas of the lung: the isotopes are deposited at bifurcations of bronchi,
bronchioles and alveoli, emitting alpha particles.
As winter turns to snuff polonium
Polonium-210 is a product of the decay of lead-210. Speculation two possibilities.
· Disintegration products of
radon-222 were deposited on the leaves of the plant.
· The plant absorbed lead 210
fertilized land.
Later it was found that the two processes were given.
The Department of Agriculture of the U.S. in 1966 considered the
presence of polonium in fertilizers and fertilizer analyzed. The results were that commercial
fertilizers containing about thirteen times 226 within the mixture which
results in an amount seven times polonium on the leaves. In 1974 the study was reviewed
and it was concluded that the soil treated with fertilizers made from
uranium-rich phosphates emit radon into the atmosphere. Radon decay to lead-210 and
this would be deposited in the trichomes, the thousands of filaments that line
the plant leaves snuff.
Accumulation of polonium 210 in the lung
For a time, agree that the radiation from the radon disintegrated
products were the main causes of the high risk of cancer suffered by workers in
uranium mines.That
led to Eduard Martell National Center for Atmospheric Research U.S. to conclude
that chronic exposure of smokers to low and concentrated dose of polonium 210
could mean the main cause Lung Cancer sermon and perhaps others.
A smoker inhales with each puff polonium. Consequently, even though the
dose of polonium 210 were relatively low, the high exposure associated with the
life of smoking increase the risk of developing cancer. The tests were conducted in
laboratory hamster trachea introducing polonium thereof confirmed the
hypothesis: although dosages were small and never inflamed tissue, 94% of the
hamsters developed lung tumors.
We must remember that the main risks of polonium are
also snuff in containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrosamines.
To conclude note that these investigations for nearly
five decades have begun to take into consideration from the year 2009 after the
adoption of the Law for the Control of Snuff and Tobacco Prevention in the
Family, the American Cancer Society invoke such legislation in order that the
tobacco industry reveal the poisons of their products.
Bibliography: Polonium 210: A volatile radioelement in cigarettes. Edward P. Radford Jr. and Sciencie R.Hunt
in January 1964.Puffing on Polinium. Robert N. Proctor in The New York Times. December 2006.The Polonium brief: A hidden history of cancer, radiation, and
tabacco Industry. Brianna
Rego September 2009. Scientific press
