". . . a Swiss institute examined clothing provided by Arafat's widow, Suha, and determined there were high levels of polonium-210 the same substance found to have killed a former Russian spy in London in 2006. "
Wouldn't high levels of polonium-210 affect Suha or the Swiss Institute too?
From an earlier Freep thread discussing the 2006 poisoning of the Russian spy:
"Polonium occurs naturally in very low concentrations in the Earth's crust, and experts said small amounts -- but not enough to kill someone -- are used legitimately in Britain and elsewhere for industrial purposes. Polonium-210 was a critical component in early nuclear weapons, and the former Soviet Union used polonium in power supply systems for spacecraft in the 1970s."@ theglobeandmail.com ...Also from the 2006 article: Comment #10 RadioAstronomer stated:
"Polonium 210 has a really short half-life (138 days). This means it is also extremely dangerous during that timeframe. Fortunately it is an alpha emitter, thusly, the primary worry is thru ingestion. It also decays to a stable form of lead (Pb-210). Actually, Po-210 has been sold and used in household products. Spark plugs, vinyl record brushes etc. If someone was poisoned with Po, a good Alpha scintillator should detect it upon measuring excretions from the body. Also most spacecraft use Pu-238 as it alpha decay source. Much longer half-life.I'm sure there's more but I'm signing off for the night. Will check back for more on this 'oh-so-obvious' attempt to rewrite Arafat's history.
This documentary is absolute crap and simply another political propaganda piece to drum up hatred against Israel.
The article does not say when they did the analysis on Arafat’s clothing but unless it was done within three years of Arafats death the chances of finding any residual Po-210 is just about ZERO.
The general fule of thumb I was tought in college was that three half-lives of an isotope typically takes the contamination of the isotope below detestability.
Granted that instrumentation today is much more sensitive but even if you stretch it out to 6 half-lives we are long past even that length of time. Even if the were to look for decay daughters Po-210 decays to Pb-206 (not 210) a stable isotope of lead by emission of a alpha particle.
But the simple fact is that Po-210 having a half-life of 138 days by December of 2011 would have gone through 18.5 half-lives and would be factually none existent in Arafat’s clothing and by 2009 would have been undetectable.
As far as an autopsy of Arafat goes Po-210 would undetectable there as well. Unless the dose that Arafat received was truly massive and left a huge amount of lead in his system an autopsy of his body would be indeterminate for Po-210 poisoning.
Umm, I’m no physics major so: If they suspect Polonium-210, would’t a geiger counter at the mausoleum indicate high radiation?
Arafat died eight years ago, if he were poisoned with 210Po the LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of those exposed) for 210Po is less than 1 microgram (1.0 × 10-6 grams) for an average adult. We can assume 1 microgram to be on the safe side. 210Po has a half life of 138.376 days, after eight years there would be (1.0 × 10-6 grams) x (2-(8x365.25/138.376)), that's 0.000000000000439 or 4.39/10,000,000,000,000) grams remaining, I doubt the ability to reliably detect one ten thousand billionth of a gram when 210Po is a naturally occurring element in the earth's crust.
Regards,
GtG