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RADIATION POISONING - UK, RUSSIA

A ProMED-mail post | ProMED-mail, a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases |

Date: 1 Dec 2006 | From: Mary Marshall | Source: Reuters

British scientists probing the death of Alexander Litvinenko said on Friday a 2nd man had been poisoned by the same radiation that killed the former Russian spy. Media reports said the man was Mario Scaramella, an Italian contact whom Litvinenko met at a London sushi restaurant on 1 Nov 2006, the same day he fell ill. "We are confirming that one further person who was in direct contact with Mr. Litvinenko has been found to have a significant quantity of polonium 210 in their body. This is being investigated further in hospital," a spokesman for the Health Protection Agency said. "There is likely to be concern for their immediate health." Police and health authorities declined to confirm the man was Scaramella. Polonium 210 is the same radioactive isotope that poisoned Litvinenko, who died a slow and agonizing death in a London hospital.

The former spy, a British citizen who became an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin after leaving Russia's secret service, accused the Kremlin chief of ordering his killing. Moscow rejects the allegation as ridiculous and has promised to help the British probe, although Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said no formal inquiries had yet been received. The case has triggered a complex police investigation and sparked diplomatic tensions between Britain and Russia. Britain has also faced a major challenge to reassure the public after traces of radiation were found at 12 sites and aboard planes which have carried more than 33 000 passengers in the past month, many flying between London and Moscow. Authorities say polonium is not dangerous unless swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through a wound. Earlier on Friday, 3 pathologists wearing protective suits to guard against radiation carried out a post-mortem on Litvinenko at the Royal London Hospital. Scaramella, who describes himself as a security consultant, said last week he had met Litvinenko on 1 Nov 2006 to show him emails from a mutual source warning both their lives may be in danger. He said Litvinenko had told him not to worry. He has denied poisoning Litvinenko himself. A lawyer representing Scaramella told Reuters on Friday he was waiting for final test results before making any comments on his state of health. He declined to explain Scaramella's earlier statements that he was not contaminated, saying the tests were "complex".

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso voiced concern about the case. "We have a problem with Russia. In fact, we have several problems. Too many people have been killed and we don't know who killed them," he said on Thursday. British media reported on Friday that scientists at the country's Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) had traced the source of the polonium to a nuclear power plant in Russia. The AWE, the body that provides warheads for Britain's nuclear arsenal, was not immediately available for comment. The head of Russia's state atomic energy agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, told the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta Russia produces only 8 grams of polonium 210 a month. He said all goes to U.S. companies through a single authorized supplier. Kiriyenko said nuclear reactors like the Russian RMBK or the Canadian CANDU were needed to make it. However Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the company that makes CANDU reactors, said Kiriyenko's statement was wrong as the plants could not produce polonium. "It's a totally false statement to suggest that," spokesman Dale Coffin said. "CANDU reactors cannot be used to generate polonium. It's a totally false statement to suggest that," said Dale Coffin, director of corporate communications at AECL. He said the reactors burned natural uranium while polonium 210 was produced using bismuth as a fuel source. "We cannot use bismuth in our fuel channels," Coffin said.

[Byline: David Clarke and Mark Trevelyan]

Date: 1 Dec 2006 | From: ProMED-mail | Source: Reuters [edited]

A female adult relative of poisoned Russian Alexander Litvinenko has been exposed to radioactive polonium 210 but is not in any short-term danger, officials said on Friday. Home Secretary John Reid told Sky News: "It is a fraction of the lethal dose that Mr. Litvinenko himself had." A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency said the isotope had shown up in a urine test. "The levels are not significant enough to result in any illness in the short term, and the results are reassuring in that any increased risk in the long term is likely to be very small," she said, adding that the woman was not in hospital. Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who became an outspoken Kremlin critic, was poisoned by polonium and died last week.

Date: 1 Dec 2006 | From: ProMED-mail | Source: The State.Com (South Carolina), the Associated Press [edited]

The FBI is joining the British probe into the poisoning death of a Kremlin critic, the agency announced Thursday as investigators found traces of radiation at a dozen sites in Britain and a former Russian prime minister reported symptoms consistent with poisoning. British authorities requested the FBI's help, agency spokesman Richard Kolko said. FBI experts in weapons of mass destruction will assist with scientific analysis. There is no suspected link to the U.S. in an investigation that extends to 5 airliners and locations from London to Moscow. Yegor Gaidar, who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s under Russian President Boris Yeltsin, vomited and fainted during a conference in Ireland on 24 Nov 2006, a day after ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning. Doctors treating Gaidar in Moscow think he also was poisoned, said his spokesman, Valery Natarov. Gaidar, 50, was feeling better Thursday, according to Natarov. Meanwhile, in Britain, a dozen sites -- including planes -- have showed traces of radioactivity, Home Secretary John Reid said. Another dozen sites were investigated, and some were cleared. Authorities have refused to say what type of radiation was found. Russian officials said radiation levels were normal on 2 suspect Russian jets and appealed to British officials for information on how to test Russians who traveled aboard 2 British Airways jets on which radiation was detected. The planes were searched because Litvinenko said before he died that a group of Russian contacts who met with him 1 Nov 2006, the day he later fell ill, had traveled to London from Moscow. An autopsy on Litvinenko, who was poisoned by a rare radioactive element called polonium-210, was set for today. Polonium is lethal when swallowed, with the power to destroy the human body's DNA. But because it doesn't penetrate the skin, it is easy to transport -- even across national borders. Gaidar's illness has added strands to a growing web of speculation in Russia about the death of Litvinenko and the 7 Oct 2006 killing of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya. Some critics see the hand of hard-liners in the country's ruling elite, while Kremlin backers have suggested a murder plot by self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky to blacken the government's reputation.

Although the issue of spying and poisoning of those people is headline news, the reason for the posting is the larger potential for public health. It is important to understand more about Polonium 210. Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the element and they named it after their country of Poland and radium. For this discovery they won the Nobel Prize. Their daughter Irene is believed to have died from cancer related to Polonium, which she was exposed to after an explosion in her laboratory. It was 15 years before the cancer took her life. Although her cancer and subsequent death are believed to have been related to the explosion and possible exposure to the element, there remain questions. For example, did a piece of Polonium 210 contaminated glass penetrate the skin of Irene? Polonium 210 has 33 isotopes, or forms, of itself. This element decays over a period of months because it emits alpha particles. Alpha particles do not penetrate objects or bodies well at all. Something as simple as a piece of paper can block alpha particles from penetrating the body. But in small doses inside the body Polonium 210 is capable of disrupting cellular DNA, resulting in organ shutdown and death, as is the case with Litvinenko. Other radioactive elements emit gamma particles, which are well-known to penetrate many substances such as walls, and human bodies. Lead stops the penetration of gamma particles. When you have dental x-rays or body x-rays, the parts of the body to be protected against gamma radiation are draped in lead. The equipment operated is shielded by a lead-lined wall. Polonium 210, on the other hand, is highly toxic in small amounts, but easily stopped -- as noted above, by a piece of paper. In order to be exposed or poisoned by Polonium 210 the element must be swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through an open wound. It will not enter a body through casual contact. For example, Polonium 210 will not enter your body by coming into contact with a door handle, or a seat, or a book. But if you were to lick that door handle, it would be possible for you to become exposed to this element. How much you might lick off of that door handle would determine the dose you received. The larger the dose, the more likelihood there would be of a fatal outcome. Some radioactive substances are used in extremely minute amounts for some medical procedures. Some cancers can be arrested by use of some types of radiation. Even minute doses of radiation will exit the body via the urine. Consequently, following some medical procedures, traces of radiation may be found around toilets or other areas, such as seats or trashcans where clothing or medical devices may have been disposed of. Some radiation sources are used in industry. Certainly the medical industry is one, the electrical industry is another. Even some microwaves, televisions, etc. may emit some detectable radiation. That does not mean these sources are dangerous, but certainly they can be detected. Polonium 210 is used as a heat source or power supply for satellites What is most important to remember is that Polonium 210 is a toxin in small doses that must be eaten, inhaled, or absorbed through an open wound. Poisoning with this isotope does not happen casually. Therefore, the possibility of being poisoned by Polonium 210 on an airplane is remote. The major concern for authorities is not knowing the source of the poison, or how it is being distributed to selected people. This is a point source exposure being delivered to certain individuals. This is not a mass poisoning situation. The incident has highlighted the issue that alpha particle radiation may not have been on the differential list of the physicians treating this first person, but it certainly will be for all future cases. - Mod.TG

Posted on the EurasiaHealth mailing list EurasiaHealth Knowledge Network

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