January 2nd, 2007 @ 12:14 am
quiet trail of death
Polonium-210’s quiet trail of death - Los Angeles Times
In many ways, polonium-210 is an ideal poison for espionage — deadly, and undetectable until it’s too late.A dose of the white powder smaller than a grain of salt could have been dropped into Litvinenko’s drink at the Millennium Hotel’s Pine Bar in London without altering the taste, according to chemist John Emsley of Cambridge University.
Pound for pound, polonium-210 is at least a million times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide, the poison used to execute prisoners in gas chambers, according to medical toxicology books. Radiation safety experts calculate that a single gram of polonium could kill 50 million people and sicken another 50 million.
But it is extremely hard to get. About 100 grams — or 3 1/2 ounces — are produced each year, primarily by Russia.
the undetectable until its too late part is the really scary part.
