Acute effects of Polonium poisoning ... (wow)

[cool user name]

Acute effects

The fatal dose (LD50, the dose that leads to 50% risk of death) for acute radiation exposure is generally about 4 Sv. One Bq of 210Po (i.e., an amount that produces one decay per second) causes a radiation dose of 0.51 µSv if ingested, and 2.5 µSv if inhaled <22>. Since 210Po radiates 166 TBq per gram, a fatal 4-Sv dose can be caused by ingesting 8 MBq (200 microcurie), about 50 nanograms (ng), or inhaling 1.6 MBq (40 microcurie), about 10 ng. One gram of 210Po could thus in theory poison 100 million people. In addition to the acute effects, short-term radiation exposure carries a long-term risk of death from cancer of approximately 8% per Sv.

In rats a dose of 1.45 MBq/kg (8.7 ng/kg) of 210Po tends to cause death in about 30 days. By this measure, 210Po is 400,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide.

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Uhhhhhhmmmm....Thanks! Thanks very much for that info.........

You did a scary amount of research there.

[cool user name]

2. Just linked it to Wikipedia ...

'Twas pretty simple but thank you.

:hi:

[TheDebbieDee]

5. It just blows my mind to know that a mere GRAM of

a substance can cause life threatening illnesses and/or death to millions.

[cool user name]

6. Also, Russia only makes 8 grams of Polonium per month.

At another Wik page, I found this gem:

<snip>

Smaller-than-lethal amounts—roughly one-thousandth of a lethal dose—are apparently available to the public in the United States by mail order from a company called United Nuclear. Potentially lethal amounts are present in anti-static brushes sold to photographers,<63> but the polonium is sealed in a ceramic matrix. General Electric markets a static eliminator with 500 microcuries (20 MBq) of Polonium 210 encased in a stainless steel housing.

[BuyingThyme]

3. How did they know to look for polonium?

[cool user name]

7. They were looking for Thallium ...

... and discovered Polonium instead.

[everythingsxen]

4. Yeah

They used that number on the news the other day, saying Polonium was X thousand times more poisonous than Cyanide.

Pretty spooky!