Radioactive Smoke
- Tobacco industry has known for decades how to remove a dangerous isotope from cigarettes but has done nothing about it.
- A former died in London hospital in what had all the hallmarks of a cold war-style assassination.
- Polonium is a poison that killed him, it is a radioactive isotope.
- People worldwide smoke almost 6 trillion cigarettes a year and each one delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs.
- Poison builds up to the equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest x-rays a year for a person who smokes one and a half packs a day.
- In June 2009 President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law.
- The legislation brings tobacco for the first time under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, allowing the agency to regulate certain components of cigarettes.
- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture took up the question of polonium from fertilizer.
- The World Health Organization has made clear that smoking is the most avoidable cause of death.
- The industry’s lawyers made the conscious choice not to act on the results of their own scientists’ investigations
Summary:
In November 2006, A former named, Alexander Litvinenko died because of a poison called polonium. Polonium is a rare radioactive isotope. People worldwide uses smokes almost six trillion cigarettes a year. Each one delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs. The poison builds up to the equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest x-rays a year. The internal tobacco industry documents have discovered that manufacturers even devised processes that would dramatically cut down the isotope’s concentrations in cigarette smoke. In June 2009 President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law. Forcing the industry to finally remove polonium from cigarette smoke would be one of the most straightforward ways to start making cigarette less deadly. Solutions that are research by tobacco manufactures are to add chemicals to tobacco so polonium 210 does not vaporize and get inhaled, wash leaves after harvest, and use ion-exchange cigarette filters to capture polonium. The commercial fertilizer had about 13 times more radium 226 than the special mix that results in nearly seven times more polonium in the leaves.
In November 2006, A former named, Alexander Litvinenko died because of a poison called polonium. Polonium is a rare radioactive isotope. People worldwide uses smokes almost six trillion cigarettes a year. Each one delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs. The poison builds up to the equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest x-rays a year. The internal tobacco industry documents have discovered that manufacturers even devised processes that would dramatically cut down the isotope’s concentrations in cigarette smoke. In June 2009 President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law. Forcing the industry to finally remove polonium from cigarette smoke would be one of the most straightforward ways to start making cigarette less deadly. Solutions that are research by tobacco manufactures are to add chemicals to tobacco so polonium 210 does not vaporize and get inhaled, wash leaves after harvest, and use ion-exchange cigarette filters to capture polonium. The commercial fertilizer had about 13 times more radium 226 than the special mix that results in nearly seven times more polonium in the leaves.