December 9, 2006

• Here’s an interesting article on smoking which I

  read in my daily paper today.

   It relates to the recent slow death in hospital of

  the Russian intelligence officer Alexander

  Litvinenko, who was reported to have been murdered

  here in the U.K. by being fed drinks or food

  containing Polonium, a substance with a short-range

  radioactivity which can be lethal if it is introduced

  into the body:-

         A   Secret   Killer

  IN THE Alexander Litvinenko coverage, polonium-210 is described

  as a rare isotope. Sadly, it isn’t rare at all and is even available at a

  discount from most international airports. Litvinenko’s death

  appears to have alerted us to an exotic new poison, but

  polonium-210 already kills tens ofthousands of Britons

  annually.

  In 1990. American Surgeon General C.Everett Koop declared

  that radioactivity, not tar, accounts for 90 per cent of

  smoking-related lung cancers. Cigarettes are in fact lightly

  radioactive.

  Most of that radiation comes from the rock-mineral fertiliser

  Apatite that subsidised American farmers must use.

  This contains radon, which decays to deposit polonium-2lO

   in the fine hairs  of tobacco leaves. This collects in smokers’

  Iungs, and beams out alpha radiation for years. Increasing use

   of radon-rich fertilisers accompanied an l8-fold increase in the

   per capita incidence of lung cancer between 1930 and 1980

  in the U.S.

  During this time, although smoking decreased by 20 per cent, 

   tobacco’s polonium-2 l0 content tripled.

  It was estimated in The New England Journal Of Medicine

  in 1982 that the lungs of someone who smokes 30 cigarettes

  a day accumulate radiation equivalent to 300 chest X-rays

  a year.

  Of  33,000 UK deaths a year from Iung cancer,  90

  per cent would equate to 30,000 caused by radiation.

  Litvinenko’s death fascinates us, but it’s surely sobering

  to realise that 575 Britons die every week  from gradually

  ingesting the same substance that poisoned him. It is not in the

   interests of the Government or the tobacco industry to

  publicise the radiation situation. Nor do anti-smoking campaigners

   wish to give attention to data which might show that smoking is not,

   of  itself, the killer.

  But they’re all aware of the situation.  We must all be saddened by

  the tragic loss of one Russian spy, but his end will have been for

   the greater good if, through raising this issue, the lives of millions

  of future smokers may be saved.

   

  • 3:40 am
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