Edited by Marino Macchio
The Vie del Polonio up to the Tobacco
The tobacco industry has known for at least 50 years that there is POLAND in the cigarettes, a radioactive isotope called polonium-210. The tobacco plants, in fact, accumulate small concentrations of polonium-210; this isotope is mainly produced by the natural radioactivity of fertilizers. At high temperatures reached during the combustion of tobacco, the polonium turns into steam, is inhaled and fixed in the lungs of smokers, consequently over time it can cause cancer. The effects of polonium alone can cause thousands and thousands of victims worldwide every year.
Research has shown that polonium accumulates in specific areas of the lung. Because of the way our airways branch out into the bronchi and alveoli, the radioisotopes settle and concentrate at the bifurcation points, where they form radioactivity hot spots, emitting alpha particles .
The damaging effects of polonium-210e radiation and other carcinogens of cigarette smoke amplify each other
HOW IS POLAND-210 ACCUMULATED INTO CUBE? How does it go in the tobacco plant?
Two researchers, Radford and Hunt, had already formulated two hypotheses in an article published in 1964 that proved to be exact in the future:
- The isotopes of radon-222 naturally present in the atmosphere, including lead-210, settle on the leaves
- Lead-210 in the fertilized soil is absorbed by plants through the roots.
Fig. 1 The ways of polonium up to tobacco
The problem
Polonium-210 is one of several uranium decay products.
Uranium is naturally present in the soil, but there is much larger concentrations in phosphate rocks from which fertilizers are derived. Researchers have discovered two pathways that lead from uranium to polonium in tobacco: through the air and through the roots. Fig. 1
The solutions
Research conducted by tobacco manufacturers has shown that combinations of the following measures could eliminate polonium-210 from cigarette smoke:
- Add chemicals to the tobacco to prevent vaporization by polonium-210 and its subsequent inhalation
- Switch to low uranium fertilizers
- Wash the leaves after collecting them
- Smoking cigarettes with ion exchange filters to capture polonium
- To create tobacco plants with hairless sheets, the "trichomes", thanks to genetic engineering
Polonium could be an excellent first "poison" from banishing from tobacco. It is a single isotope, not a complex smoking ingredient. Other poisons such as phenol or carbon monoxide are difficult to separate from smoking, but polonium does not. Furthermore, some steps that can reduce polonium concentrations in smoking, such as washing tobacco leaves, could also help remove toxic metals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium.
The World Health Organization has declared that smoking around the world is the cause of death EASIEST to avoid. Every year, 1.3 million people die of lung cancer worldwide, 90% due to smoking, of which 2% due to polonium.
Even knowing the danger and even the processes that would drastically reduce the concentrations of this isotope in cigarette smoke, the tobacco industry decided not to act and to keep the research secret. As a result, cigarettes still contain the same amount of polonium they contained half a century ago.
readings
Polonium-210: A volatile Radioelement in cigarettes. Radford Jr. EP and Hunt VR
In "Sciences", vol 143, pp. 247-249, 17 January 1964.
Puffing on Polonium . Proctor RN, in "New York Times", 1 December 2006.
The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America. Brandt AM, Basic Books, 2007.
Waking a Sleeping Giant: The Tobacco Industry's Response to the Polonium-210 Issue . Muggli ME, and others, in "American Journal of Public Health, " Vol. 98, No. 9, pp. 1643-1650, 16 July 2008.
The Polonium Brief: A Hidden History of Cancer, Radiation, and the Tobacco Industry . Rego b., In «Isis», Vol. 100, n. 3, pp. 453-484, September 2009.
