Free Republic

The first human trial of a pill to reverse nuclear radiation poisoning has been launched in the United States. In the trial, 42 participants will receive the drug — named HOPO 14-1 — as an oral pill in Plymouth, Michigan, and then be monitored to see how well it is absorbed and removed from the body. If the trial is successful, the treatment could become available by 2024, according to the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is funding the research. News of the trial comes amid heightened fears about nuclear war as Russia continues to issue...

Results of radiation on the human body.

The British government sought on Tuesday to limit the information it would disclose at a planned inquest into the death of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former officer in the K.G.B. who succumbed to radiation poisoning in London more than six years ago. The coroner hearing the case said that it may now be postponed. “Due to the complexity of the investigation which necessarily precedes the hearings,” the coroner, Sir Robert Owen, said, “it may not be possible to adhere” to the planned May 1 start date for the hearings. The inquest would be the first — and probably the only...

Dirty bombs are one of the biggest threats to the world's urban populations. Now an American molecular biologist has developed a drug that may protect against the effects of radioactivity. Military officials are thrilled, and the discoverers could make billions. On Friday afternoons, as the Sabbath approaches and the sun hangs low in the sky over the Mediterranean, the Restaurant Turquoise north of Tel Aviv is a carefree oasis. Every seat in the place is taken, and the crowd is in high spirits. Only one patron, Yacov Reizman, seems serious as he glances at a stack of documents -- a...

How are you? I've spent 2 days in radiology clinics. Nasty soviet lie about radiation - i remember civil defence lessons at school. huge impressions on medicine and society at large. i think i need to go to isr nuccent. tell a word in skp? Federal sanitary monitoring and control agency replied in a mumbling style that they had no idea, no responsibility, no wish, no knowledge, no time to fulfill their pumped plentiful budget and investigate situation in my apartment, which definitely affected our health. I would add to this row - Russians have no internal culture and no...

A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates. Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died. Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.” ....

Please note: this post includes a reprise of contributions made by other posters-plus some comments of mine. The late Alexander Litvinenko may well have been the victim of those he counted as friends/benefactors. They are not an especially attractive group !