- people worldwide smoke almost six trillion cigarettes a year, and each one delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs
- the poison builds up to the equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest x-rays a year for a person who smokes one and a half packs a day
- radium and polonium, the two elements discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898
- they form “hot spots” of radioactivity, emitting alpha particles.
- Polonium 210 is a decay product of lead 210
- A 1966 experiment by the USDA and the Atomic Energy Commission tested two different kinds of fertilizers, a commercial “superphosphate” one and a special mix made from chemically pure calcium phosphate
- The commercial fertilizer had about 13 times more radium 226 than the special mix, resulting in nearly seven times more polonium in the leaves.
- Martell suggested that soils containing uranium-rich phosphate fertilizer would release radon 222 into the surrounding atmosphere, raising its concentration above normal levels.
- The radon would then decay into lead 210, which would deposit on the growing plants, sticking to the thousands of little hairs called trichomes that cover tobacco leaves.
- exposure to radiation from radon “daughters” was the principal cause of elevated cancer risk in uranium miners
- A smoker stockpiles his or her supply of polonium with each drag; therefore, the high exposure associated with a lifetime of smoking would leave the smoker at a risk for cancer despite the relatively low dose of polonium 210 per cigarette.
- conservative estimates based on risk from radiation exposure suggest that polonium 210 may be responsible for 2 percent of smoke-induced lung cancers, and thus for several thousands of deaths a year in the U.S. alone
- In June 2009 President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law
- In 1975 USDA scientist T. C. Tso estimated that 30 to 50 percent of polonium could easily be removed from fertilizer and that washing could eliminate another 25 percent
- It estimates that 1.3 million people die of lung cancer worldwide every year, 90 percent because of smoking.
Summary:
Polonium is a toxic that is in the tobacco that causes many people to die in lung cancer. Many scientist are researching on how a toxic can contaminate the tobacco leaves and they founded that smoking the leaves affects the lungs of a person smoking. They estimates that 1.3 million people die of lung cancer worldwide every year, 90 percent because of smoking. The industry knows that their tobacco is contains toxic they didn't any actions to prevent that toxic from getting into the tobacco leaves. The researchers founded that radiation exposure suggest that polonium 210 may be responsible for 2 percent of smoke-induced lung cancers, and thus for several thousands of deaths a year in the U.S. alone. They also founded that the more a person smokes that more the toxic contaminates the lungs and it will create a lung cancer.
Reflection:
After reading this article, even though the industry knows how and can to remove the toxic from the tobacco, they still didn't take any action and said that it's all up to us whether to be affected or not. So, we also know that smoking is bad, most people tend to ignore that warning because of how they became addicted or became a habit to them. We have to tell them to how that what they are smoking contains many very toxic poisons that kills many people, If we take actions, maybe they will quit smoking and encourage other people to stop smoking as well.