A rarest, dreaded polluting element polonium-210 in environment: its intricacy on human health –A Review

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International Journal of Advanced Chemical Science and Applications (IJACSA)

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ISSN (Print):2347-7601, ISSN (Online): 2347-761X, Vol-4, Iss-1, 2016 5

A rarest, dreaded polluting element polonium-210 in environment: its intricacy on human health –A Review

Sujata Otta

Department of Chemistry, V. N. (Auto) College, Vyasanagar, Odisha Email: [email protected]

[Received:20^th Nov.2016 Accepted:25^th Accepted]

Abstract—Although the Unfortunate death of Litvinenko in London during Nov. 2006, and some other cases reported in July 2012, stimulated this review work on the poisoning related to polonium- 210 and its sources available in the environment, the paper does not examine the particular circumstances of the incidents. Instead, it is a review on scientific evidences of lethal Po- 210 in environment via tobacco and other food sources and accumulated statistical data over decades about the biological behaviour of Polonium-210 and its intricacy on human health.

I. INTRODUCTION

The rarest type of environmental pollution caused by the very uncommon element polonium -210 is of great concern after a report revealed the death of a Russian dissident Alexandar Litvinenko in 2006 due to Polonium-210 Poisoning^[1]. There are some more cases detected but not revealed fully owing to sensitive socio-political issues. The alarming increase rate of carcinogenic cases as well as the cases with respiratory tract disorder, asthma etc.

gives an insight that the environmental pollution some how relates with the trace polonium-210 poisoning which is present in small quantities in soil and air. The main sources of Polonium-210 for human intake is via chewing and / or inhaling tobacco and some food stuffs. We cannot ignore the role of Polonium-210 in the plausible cause of death of Marie Curie.

Knowledge of the chemistry of Polonium^[2] is limited by the absence of a stable isotope of this element as well as the difficulty of working with the most readily available Polonium-210 isotope.

The element is named after its discoverer, Marie Curie’s home country, Poland.

II. DISCOVERY AND OCCURRENCE

Polonium was discovered ^{[2, 3]} by Marie Curie while processing very large amounts of Thorium and Uranium minerals and separating the decay products. Polonium is one of the decay products.

Marie Curie was awarded Nobel Prize for chemistry for the second time in 1911 for the discovery of Polonium as well as Radium ^{[3, 4]}.

210 β 210 β 210 α 206

Pb Bi Po Pb

82 t_0.5=22.3yrs. 83t_0.5=5.0days84 t_0.5=138.4days 82 (t_0.5= half life period).

Recently, it was obtained by irradiating bismuth with high energy neutrons or protons.

There are 33 Isotopes of polonium; polinium -210 is one of them.

Polonium -210 exists naturally and present in small quantities widely in the soil and air. Abundance of Polonium in the earth’s crust is trace by weight. It occurs naturally in uranium minerals such as pitchblende, to the extent of

5X10^-9 % of the mineral.

III. ENVIRONMENTAL AVAILABILITY

It is believed to be available in the vicinity of a source of airborne dust in and around the phosphate plant^[4] , its solid, liquid waste and in the soils of crop fields by the use of fertilisers by farmers. It is found in low concentration over the leaves of tobacco and some leafy vegetables, strawberries, etc., which have some fine hair roots on the exposed surface.

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IV. HEALTH EFFECTS

Polonium is highly dangerous and has no biological role known so far. If a source of polonium -210 is outside of the body, it is not a health hazard. The alpha particles erntitted by Polonium -210 do not travel far and cannot penetrate the epidermis layer of skin of our bodies.

But, by mass, polonium -210 is about 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide (Less than 1 microgram of Polonium-210 is comparable with about 250 milligrams hydrogen cyanide in toxicity for an average adult.) ^{[5, 6]}. The main hazard is its intense alpha radiation. One milligram (5 curies) of polonium -210 emits about as many alpha particles per second as 5 gms of radium–226; which makes polonium–210 to be quite unstable and reported to have a half life of 138.376 days. It can be a health hazard if it is somehow enter inside the body, either by eating it, breathing it or drinking it, may be directly or indirectly through contamination. The alpha particles emitted by polonium – 210 do not travel far but deposit their energy in a very small area which, in turn, damage or injure the nearby cell.

The most peculiar ways for common men to get contaminated by polonium -210 are the tobacco leaves (either by chewing as ghutkas etc. or by smoking cigarettes) eigther/or by contaminated food staffs such as strawberries,etc. The main source of polonium – 210 contaminations is believed to be tobacco in cigarettes and other chewing materials. Toxic and rodioactive substances in cigaretts harm smokers and people exposed to second hand smoke. It has reported that the rodioactive materials Po-210 and pb-210 get into and onto tobacco leaves and remain there even after the tobacco leaves have been processed. No doubt, cigarettes contain other toxic materials (tar, arsenic, nicotine, cyanide etc.), but the most alarming element is Polonium-210 along with pb- 210. Smoke enter the lungs via mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus and so on, where it causes direct and indirect damage or rupture of the cells and tissues by localisation of high energy in places and get trapped in bronchioles of lungs. According to CDC studies^[7], smoking caused 80 percentage of all lung cancer deaths in women and 90 percentage of all lung cancer deaths in men.

A per the health protection agency ^[8], ingestion of 1-3 GBq of Polonium-210 or more is likely to lead death within a week, assuming 10% absorption to blood (0.1 – 0.3 GBq). On reaching blood stream, it would be rapidly deposited in major organs and

tissues including lymph nodes mucous lining of the respiratory tract, liver, kidneys and bone marrows.

The intense alpha radiation within these tissues would result in massive destruction as well as huge multiplication of living cells, leading to a rapid decline in health and death occur from multiple organ failure. Either smoking or getting exposed to smoke may cause cancer of mouth, throat, Larynx and esophagus. Smokers have higher risks of kidney, pancreatic and lungs cancer^[9]. As the alpha radiation in small amount (vta food / some sort of intake) also can damage epithelial cells in gastrointestinal tract, disrupt cell structure, fragment nuclie the other possible health hazards are numerous such as

 Extra clotting of blood, blue patches

 Yellow fingers

 Bronchitis / asthma

 Constricted blood vessels

 COPD – chronic obstructive and pulmonary diseases

 High cholesterol

 Wrinkly skin

 Diabetes complications

 Infertility

 Problems with pregnancy And more over problems for newborns

Remedial medical treatment strategies are unlikely to be effective once significant amounts of polonium -210 have entered the blood stream and deposited in tissues / cells. It has been reported ^[5]

that chelation agents such as British Anti-Lewisite (dimercaprol) can be used to decontaminate humans. But, it is not even 80 percent successful.

V. WELL KNOWN CASE STUDIES.

It has been suggested ^[6] that Irene Joliot-Curie was the first person to die from the radiation effects of polonium. After the accidental exposure to polonium in her laboratory, she died from Leukemia (ten years after) in 1956.

Several deaths in Israel ^[10] during 1957-1969 were caused by polonium -210. Traces of Po-210 were exposed on the hands of Professor Dror Sadeh, a physicist, at Weizmann institute laborotory in 1957 accidentally. Sadeh died from cancer, while one of his students died of leukemia and two colleagues died after a few years, both from cancer^[6]. Though

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the actual fact is not known but it is believed to be Polonium-210 as the main cause.

The death of former Soviet and Russian Spy, Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 was announced to be due to Po-210 poisoning ^[1]. According to swiss scientist, their team found evidence that the polestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with polonium– 210 ^[11].

VI. CONCLUSION

During the World War II , Polonium-210 was a critical part of the implosion-type nuclear weapon design used in the Fat Man bomb on Nagasaki in 1945. Even, today, after 70 years, the impact of the devastation is there with the genetic disordered new borns, the physically and mentally turmoiled human society. Polonium-210 is so dreaded which we can imagine by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki disasters which has its trail of impact even today.

We, as human beings must be aware of these facts that even the intake of small amount of polonium- 210 in the form of cigaratte smoke and so on, can cause genetic disorder leading to an unhealthy generation ahead, deformed mankind and overall a human society with thousands uncurable health disorder. As no certain remedies are available, we must prevent all these rarest pollutant wisely and cautiously. There must be proper regulations and sufficient protection against the use of polonium-

210. The availability of substances like cigarattes, ghutkas should be minimised for betterment of the society.

REFERENCES

[1] Sky news, Dec.’2. 2006.

[2] John S Thayer, chemistry of heavier main group elements, P-78, 2010.

[3] A.G. Sharpe, Inorganic Chemistry, 3^rd edition, Pearson Education, P-369.

[4] J. D. Lee, Concise Inorganic Chemistry, 5^th ed. , Wiley India, P- 916.

[5] Health Physics Society, Journal, pp 1-3, May 2010.

[6] Wikipedia

[7] National Public Health Institute, USA, Wikipedia.

[8] News Medical- Medical & life sciences, March 6, 2007.

[9] News- Delaware health and social services, Division of Public health, Jan. 01/2010.

[10] The Bomb in the basement – By Michael Karpin, Simon & Schuster, Canada, Jan- 2006.

[11] American Broadcast Network, NBC, Nov.7, 2013 .

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