This had crossed my mind early on, but I'm not sure he was weird enough to take his own life. Yet, who else was close enough to him to have polluted three locations he visited (including his home) with Po? I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
One thing these stories don't tell us is where the traces of polonium were found by the police.
The fact that he met the two Russians before and not after going to the sushi restaurant means that, if Po traces were indeed found at the hotel he might not have been poisoned at the sushi restaurant. But that is just weird...
What if he had inhaled the polonium and the traces are the result of some of it being exhaled back? Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
The fact that he met the two Russians before and not after going to the sushi restaurant..
Not quite clear in what order the meetings took place, the earliest press reports said he met the Russians at the Millennium hotel before going to the Sushi restaurant, but some of the more recent ones say it was the other way round. "Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami
Echo of Moscow has an interview, in Russian, with Russians who met with Litvinenko on the 1st of November:
Andrey Lugovoy, Vyacheslav Sokolenko and Dmitry Kovtun.
Lugovoy was an officer in KGB department responsible for ceremonial and protection duties in Kremlin, which in early 90ies was reformed into separate Secret Service, was Berezonsky's bodyguard while in the government service, and had left the service in 1996 and been running his own businesses (security consulting first, mostly wine and soft drinks now) since.
According to the interview, about one year ago Litvinenko contacted him and suggested his help organizing partnership between British companies and Lugovoy's business. Since then they were meeting from time to time when Lugovoy was coming to London and understanding was that they are going to be partners in this new venture.
Dmitry Kovtun is ex-USSR military, and Lugovoy's friend and partner, who stayed in Germany after 1991 and currently is a consultant for doing business in Russia. He also participated in the meeting and for whatever reason was called "Volodya" in early media reports.
Vyacheslav Sokolenko is from the same military colledge as Kovtun and Lugovoy and currently heads a private security company in Russia.
From what they are saying, they came to London for a football match and met with Litvinenko to discuss their business project. Meeting was in hotel and lasted 20-30 minutes, Lugovoy and Kovtun ordered drinks, Litvinenko did not eat or drink anything. At that time Sokolenko was showing London to Lugovoy's and his own families, and met Litvinenko shortly at the end of the meeting when they were back at the hotel.
Traces of killer substance at London hotel
POLICE revealed yesterday that several rooms in the London hotel where Alexander Litvinenko met two Russian businessmen had been contaminated with polonium-210, the substance that killed him. At the Millennium hotel in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, two policemen were posted by the revolving entrance doors yesterday. Inside, the Pine Bar was closed and fenced off with a wooden screen. One guest said bedroom 441 was blocked off and guarded by police.
POLICE revealed yesterday that several rooms in the London hotel where Alexander Litvinenko met two Russian businessmen had been contaminated with polonium-210, the substance that killed him.
At the Millennium hotel in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, two policemen were posted by the revolving entrance doors yesterday. Inside, the Pine Bar was closed and fenced off with a wooden screen. One guest said bedroom 441 was blocked off and guarded by police.
The paper of the envelope would protect the bearer, if he were careful, from exposure and would shield the isotope from being detected by radiation sensors.
Polonium evaporates if left in the open for more than three days.
I think he was poisoned by a relatively fresh supply obtained from a government reactor.
Could it be that he was being exposed over time to the isotope?
Some interesting stuff about Po-210, which is used to give lab animals malignant tumors--injecting it into their lungs, for instance:
Health effects of polonium Polonium is studied in a few nuclear research laboratories where its high radioactivity as an alpha-emitter requires special handling techniques and precautions. 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. Lung cancer rates among 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. 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. As radon decays, its electrically charged daughter products 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 emit radiation. Smoking two packs of cigarettes a day imparts a radiation dose by 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. However, the radiation dose at the radon "action level" of 4 pCi/L is roughly equivalent to smoking 10 cigarettes a day. In addition, polunium-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 liver, and cardiovascular diseases. The Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that radioactivity, rather than tar, accounts for at least 90% of all smoking-related lung cancers. The 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.
Polonium is studied in a few nuclear research laboratories where its high radioactivity as an alpha-emitter requires special handling techniques and precautions.
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.
Lung cancer rates among 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. 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.
As radon decays, its electrically charged daughter products 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 emit radiation. Smoking two packs of cigarettes a day imparts a radiation dose by 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. However, the radiation dose at the radon "action level" of 4 pCi/L is roughly equivalent to smoking 10 cigarettes a day.
In addition, polunium-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 liver, and cardiovascular diseases.
The Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that radioactivity, rather than tar, accounts for at least 90% of all smoking-related lung cancers. The 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.
http://www.lenntech.com/Periodic-chart-elements/Po-en.htm
Someone mentioned taking potassium iodide as protection against Po-210. But KI only protects the thyroid by blocking uptake of radio-iodine.
Uness you have a close room and the killer is dispensable.
If we are talking about micrograms is better to disolve it...(even with miligrams is probably better than putting it among salt or among a food dish)
then you need a complex system to put the approprite amount in the liquid.. but then delivering is just a piece of cake.
A pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
I am saying this because if people start looking they're going to find "traces of polonium" anywhere that anyone has smoked indoors in the past 130 days. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
To see the decay chain, go to http://www.ccnr.org/radon_chart.html
What the investigators are looking for is excessive Po-210, and believe me, the reactor-produced isotope that was so lethal was indeed excessive enough to be tracked.
Unlike chemical and biological agents, radiological ones are traceable to a very sophisticated degree. That's why I think that whoever killed Litvinenko wanted to send a message--wanted the means of his murder to be discovered.
Whoever delivered the Po-210 may not have known what he was doing and would also be at risk or dead by now. Hence my theory about documents L. was handed. I imagine hospitals in London are being checked.
You know, someone could have just bumped into L. in an enclosed space, like a cloak room, as if by accident, and released the material. Or in a restaurant or bar, L. could have been distracted by a staged incident and the poison delivered to his drink. Delivery of something so tiny would be pretty easy.
I argued upthread that it looked like Litvinenko got a dose of around 5 Sieverts. Suppose this happened by inhalation: the same amount of polonium, if ingested, would result in exposure to about 1 Sievert, which would be spectacular but not likely to be deadly with access to advanced medical care:
1-2 Sv (100-200 REM) Light radiation poisoning, 10% fatality after 30 days (LD 10/30). Typical symptoms include mild to moderate nausea (50% probability at 2 Sv), with occasional vomiting, beginning 3 to 6 hours after irradiation and lasting for up to one day. This is followed by a 10 to 14 day latent phase, after which light symptoms like general illness and fatigue appear (50% probability at 2 Sv). The immune system is depressed, with convalescence extended and increased risk of infection. Temporary male sterility is common. Spontaneous abortion or stillbirth will occur in pregnant women.
Anyway, pretty good detective work by the physics crew on ET! I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
Imagien that we are dealing wiht order of magnitudes of microgram. Of course, if they are using it themselves and carrying out you should know what youa re doing.
You cna botch it up by making a bad homogenization of the initial powder. You can botch it but leaving up int he air to much time with no shield. You can make mistakes inthe residuals and not cleaning them appropriately.
We more or less know what could go wrong.. and still a msitake is always possible...so it could also happen to them..
the weak point here is that you would never do this alone.. actually you 'd better take a good chemistry and a good lab officer to deal with it, better from the nuclear industry so he knows how to deal with alpha particles ina safe way (it is not difficult if you know about it).. someon who would not do the obvious mistake.
And still if they made a mistae.. more than one person should be poisoned.
So L. did not get the treatment he needed up front. Although Prussian Blue would have perhaps helped him a little with the radioactive material, and he did receive that to detox him from the supposed thallium.
One of the problems here is that medical people never see a case of radiation poisoning and it is just not the first thing doctors think of. Incidents worldwide are very rare.
