SMOKERS – YOU ARE INHALING THE SAME RADIOAC TIVE POISON THAT KILLED Russian ex-spy Alexan der Litvinenko!

SMOKERS – YOU ARE INHALING THE SAME RADIOACTIVE POISON THAT KILLED Russian 
ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko! 

  
When Did Governments (and tobacco companies) Know About Polonium 210 and How 
Long Have They Known? 

By Tom Dennen 
Customers at a restaurant and a hotel visited by the poisoned  ex-KGB officer 
Alexander Litvinenko will be tested for the radioactive  substance that killed 
him, Polonium 210, said British health chiefs on  Friday. 

Polonium 210 is found in trace amounts in cigarette smoke and is the major 
reason it causes cancer. 

Polonium 210 is the only component of cigarette smoke that has  produced cancers 
by itself in laboratory animals by inhalation - tumors  appear at a level FIVE 
TIMES LOWER than the dose to a heavy smoker. 

SCIENTISTS KNEW BY 1980 
Lung cancer rates among American men kept climbing from a rarity  in 1930 
(4/100,000 per year) to the No. 1 cancer killer in 1980  (72/100,000) in spite 
of an almost 20 percent reduction in smoking  through anti-smoking information 
campaigns. But during the same period,  the level of polonium 210 in American 
tobacco had tripled. This  coincided with the increase in the use of phosphate 
fertilizers by  tobacco growers - calcium phosphate ore accumulates uranium and 
slowly  releases radon gas. 

(From Lenntech Water treatment & air purification Holding B.V. Rotterdamseweg 
402 M): 

As radon decays, its electrically charged daughter products  (including Polonium 
210) attach themselves to dust particles, which  adhere to the sticky hairs on 
the underside of tobacco leaves. This  leaves a deposit of radioactive polonium 
and lead on the leaves. Then,  the intense localized heat in the burning tip of 
a cigarette volatilizes  the radioactive metals. While cigarette filters can 
trap chemical  carcinogens, they are ineffective against radioactive vapors. 

The lungs of a chronic smoker end up with a radioactive lining in a 
concentration much higher than from residential radon. 

These particles, including Polonium 210, emit radiation. 
Smoking two packs of cigarettes a day imparts a radiation dose by  Polonium 
210-emitted alpha particles of about 1,300 millirem per year.  For comparison, 
the annual radiation dose to the average American from  inhaled radon is 200 
mrem. 

In addition, polonium 210 is soluble and is circulated through  the body to 
every tissue and cell in levels much higher than from  residential radon. The 
proof is that it can be found in the blood and  urine of smokers. The 
circulating polonium 210 causes genetic damage and  early death from diseases 
reminiscent of early radiological pioneers:  liver and bladder cancer, stomach 
ulcer, leukemia, cirrhosis of the  liver and cardiovascular diseases. 

Former United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that  radioactivity, 
rather than tar, accounts for at least 90% of all  smoking-related lung cancers. 
The American Center for Disease Control  concluded: "Americans are exposed to 
far more radiation from tobacco  smoke than from any other source." 

Cigarette smoking accounts for 30% of all cancer deaths. 
Only poor diet rivals tobacco smoke as a cause of cancer in the  U.S., causing a 
comparable number of fatalities each year. However, the  National Cancer 
Institute, with an annual budget of $500 million, has no  active funding for 
research of radiation from smoking or residential  radon as a cause of lung 
cancer, presumably to protect the public from  undue fears of radiation from 
smoking tobacco. 

Corruption, anyone? 
Meanwhile, the British Health Protection Agency last week called  for people who 
had been to the Itsu sushi restaurant or Millennium Hotel  in central London on 
November 1 to come forward. 

Its appeal came as the Conservatives indicated that they would ask the 
Government to make a Commons statement over the affair. 

The HPA is taking "extremely seriously" concerns that other  people may have 
been contaminated by the Polonium 210 that led to the  death of Alexander 
Litvinenko in hospital although it made clear the  risk was low. 

Doctors discovered that he had somehow ingested a large dose of  the radioactive 
substance and samples of it were later found in the  hotel and restaurant. 

Mr. Litvinenko, a former colonel in the Russian security services, visited both 
places on November 1, the day he was taken ill. 

A vocal opponent of Vladimir Putin, Mr. Litvinenko, 43, claimed  in a statement 
made public after his death that the Russian president  had had him poisoned. 

Scotland Yard's counter terrorism unit is investigating but has  not described 
it as murder. Foreign Office officials have passed on a  request via the Russian 
Ambassador, Yuri Fedotov, asking authorities in  Moscow to make available any 
information that might assist police with  their enquiries. 

A post-mortem examination of Mr. Litvinenko's body has been  delayed while a 
risk assessment is carried out to see if it is safe to  perform the procedure 
and what precautions may be necessary. 

Polonium-210 is very dangerous to handle in even tiny amounts -  milligram or 
microgram amounts - and special equipment and strict  control is necessary. 

Human damage arises from the complete absorption of the alpha  particle energy 
Polonium 210 emits, which is captured by soft tissue. 

Sources maintain that it is not only a very unusual method of  assassination, 
but also that not even fiction writers have bothered with  it as a 
difficult-to-detect murder weapon. 

Breathe…IN…