Polonium 210

Polonium-210 is all over the news since Alexander Litvinenko an anti-Putin Russian defector died from it in London. I recently read about polonium because I read an autobiography by the New York psychologist Jonathan Sacks, who grew up in London. He was an amazingly precocious chemist, whose uncles were chemists and physicists and whose parents were both physicians. When he was about 12 he already had his own chemistry lab and a fume hood in his own large home. The book is entitled "Uncle Tungsten," because one of his uncles had a factory that made electric light bulbs from early in the 19th century using tungsten as the ideal filament (strong and able to withstand very high temperatures). The book is about his childhood and his love affair with chemistry. One thing one learns about in detail in the book is the discovery of the higher elements by Marie and Pierre Curie, including the discovery of uranium and other radioactive elements.
Most people know that the French chemist Becquerel actually discovered spontaneous radiation. It was the Curies who spent many years isolating the higher radioactive elements from ores such as pitchblende. Their laboratory was so contaminated from all the radiation emitting elements it literally glowed in the dark. When they realized that uranium spontaneously decayed to lighter elements, usually including the stable element lead, they also discovered a series of new elements in the breakdown products. The first of them Marie Cure called Polonium after her native country Poland.
Polonium also spontaneously decays and emits alpha particles or high energy radiation, but only over a very short distance (cm). In that respect Polonium 210 is a very good poison, because its radiation is stopped by any barrier from paper to glass and if contained inside a glass vial it is undetectable from the outside. But, if ingested into the body in food, drink or thru lesions in the skin, it is highly toxic (250 million times more than cyanide) at very low doses (micrograms, like grains of salt), and when spread around the body will cause the breakdown of numerous tissues over time. Since polonium 210 has a half life of 138 days, over a period of a few months while causing death, it will also decay away. So if the tissues and/or the urine of the person are not analyzed in time, it will be gone, mysteriously - poof!
It is a mystery why it was first thought that Litvinenko was posioned by thallium, which has isotopes of mass 203 and 205. Using a method called mass spectrometry, which measures the mass of any isotope, it is very characteristic to measure the mass of an element and unique to find a peak at 210. It is strange that this was not found much earlier, but it was not until several weeks after the poisoning (Nov 1) that it was announced that the effects were due to polonium. Why his urine was not checked for radiation and mass spectrometry immediately remains a serious question.
Even more mysterious is why they checked the clothes of the peron he met at the Japanese restaurant Itsu on November 1, an Italian Professor named Mario Scaramella, who has some strange connections in Russia and Italy, but they did not check his urine until now. It was intially announced that Scaramella was not contaminated, but now they say that he is highly contaminated, although he shows none of the medical symptoms that Litvinenko did. So the question arises, was he the perpetrator of Litvinenko's poisoning or was he just another unlucky victim. Also, Yegor Gaidar, a former PM of Russia, who was taken suddenly very ill on a visit to Ireland recetnly, where Litvinenko also went after his initial poisoning and where he also became suddenly very ill, seems to have very similar symptoms now in a hospital in Moscow.
The physical evidence doesn't lie. By determining the level of contamination or radioactivity in tissues it is possible to work backwards to find out the source of the poisoning. Litvinenko will have left small traces of contamination in every place he went, including especially wherever he went to the toilet. If he left traces on plates and utensils in restaurants it is hoped that all personnel used gloves that would have protected them from being contaminated.
Polonium 210 cannot be used as a weapon of mass destruction, it is a highly localized but potent poison. This unprecendented case will bring great attention to the nefarious workings of secret agents and their insidious methods of removing troublesome opponents. Inside Russia they simply shoot them, but outside they must be more subtle.