What do Russian Alexander Litvinenko and cigarettes have in common?
Polonium 210. You may remember that Litvinenko died in London in 2006 after being deliberately poisoned with the known carcinogen. But did you know that some of the world’s largest tobacco companies researched the lethal radioactive substance polonium – present in cigarettes – over a 40-year period but never published the results? A spokeswoman for British American Tobacco was quoted as saying “It’s fairly common knowledge polonium 210 is in cigarette smoke because it’s present in all such plant types, including strawberries.” If it was common knowledge, why did they not disclose the results of their studies? Additional Information from the Tobacco Control Reference Catalogue Polonium in cigarette smoke and radiation exposure of lungs Carvalho, Fernando P.; Oliveira, Joo M. Czechoslovak Journal of Physics. 56(1): D697-D703. January 2006. [Article] Radiation from tobacco smoke is one of the prime factors in causing lung cancer. In this study, researchers analyzed polonium concentrations
