Bits and pieces
Nobody seemed to be glowing in the dark when I was in London (although I'm quite glad I did no more than toy with the idea of eating lunch in the Piccadilly sushi bar that has since been considered a possible poisoning venue for one very ex-KGB man). The whole story is just too surreal and too much like a Frederick Forsyth novel to be of much concern to the average Londoner, even though a steady stream of hotel and airline employees and passengers are being tested for radiation poisoning. If the poisoner was incompetent enough to leave a trail of radioactivity across Europe, I don't give much for his chances of survival even if he manages to escape British justice - he must have absorbed enough of his own poison to power the electrical needs of a small town. There may even be something good to come from Litvinenko's terrible death if more publicity is given to this story about the true effects of smoking cigarettes. The really interesting bit of the story is here at Wikipedia, particularly this paragraph:
The radioactive elements in tobacco are accumulated from the minerals in the soil, as with any plant, but are also captured on the sticky surface of the tobacco leaves in excess of what would be seen with plants not having this property. As might be expected, the radioactivity measured in tobacco varies widely depending on where and how it is grown. One study found that tobacco grown in India averaged only 0.09 pCi per gram of polonium 210, whereas tobacco grown in the United States averaged 0.516 pCi per gram. Another study of Indian tobacco, however, measured an average of 0.4 pCi of polonium 210 per cigarette, which also would be approximately a gram of tobacco. One factor in the difference between India and the United States may be the extensive use of apatite as fertilizer for tobacco in the United States, because it starves the plant for nitrogen, thereby producing more flavorful tobacco; apatite is known to contain radium, lead 210, and polonium 210. This would also account for increased concentration of these elements compared to other crops, which do not use this mineral as fertilizer.
Our governments have known about this for forty years but have done nothing to publicise it or ban the use of polonium-rich fertilisers. I know big business always rules in these matters, but with radiation poisoning such a hot topic at the moment, maybe some people will think twice about buying their own personal dose of polonium from the local tobacconist.
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It's always good to see a woman on top in what was once a sacred male preserve. Here is a more informative article without the sensationalism.
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And finally, I'm fed up with wind and rain. Sixteen consecutive days of storms is just too much, as is the omnipresent and glutinous mud that will now be with us until next spring unless we have a prolonged cold spell to freeze it into submission for a few days.
The radioactive elements in tobacco are accumulated from the minerals in the soil, as with any plant, but are also captured on the sticky surface of the tobacco leaves in excess of what would be seen with plants not having this property. As might be expected, the radioactivity measured in tobacco varies widely depending on where and how it is grown. One study found that tobacco grown in India averaged only 0.09 pCi per gram of polonium 210, whereas tobacco grown in the United States averaged 0.516 pCi per gram. Another study of Indian tobacco, however, measured an average of 0.4 pCi of polonium 210 per cigarette, which also would be approximately a gram of tobacco. One factor in the difference between India and the United States may be the extensive use of apatite as fertilizer for tobacco in the United States, because it starves the plant for nitrogen, thereby producing more flavorful tobacco; apatite is known to contain radium, lead 210, and polonium 210. This would also account for increased concentration of these elements compared to other crops, which do not use this mineral as fertilizer.
Our governments have known about this for forty years but have done nothing to publicise it or ban the use of polonium-rich fertilisers. I know big business always rules in these matters, but with radiation poisoning such a hot topic at the moment, maybe some people will think twice about buying their own personal dose of polonium from the local tobacconist.
********
It's always good to see a woman on top in what was once a sacred male preserve. Here is a more informative article without the sensationalism.
********
And finally, I'm fed up with wind and rain. Sixteen consecutive days of storms is just too much, as is the omnipresent and glutinous mud that will now be with us until next spring unless we have a prolonged cold spell to freeze it into submission for a few days.