Radioactive
Poisons
by:
Steve Fowler
February 21, 2007
The recent poisoning of the ex Russian spy - Litvenenko
- has spawned a series of television programs about the use of radioactive
materials used as poisons. Dateline, NCIS and Law and Order have or
will run programs on the use of radioactive materials as poisons.
This may also spawn some terrorists to think of these
as weapons on a larger scale.
Wikipedia has some interest facts about some of these
poisons actually used and portrayed as being used. See the site below.
One factor should be noted in the ingestion or inhalation
of these agents, chelation is somewhat effective if used early enough.
So if you are poisoned by some Russians, remember the chelation therapy
and do it quickly.
The problem with determining if there was a poisoning
with radioactive materials is the detection of these poisons. many of
them such as Polonium do not give off readily detectable radiation events.
Polonium is almost a pure Alpha emitter. That means normal Geiger Counter
style;e equipment is not effective in finding the poison due to the
short range of the Alpha particles. Even at sophisticated hospitals
with threshold detectors, the Alpha particles would not be detected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimercaprol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_blue
