The mysterious "Poison King", this element is so poisonous!

In October 2013, an academic paper comparable to a detective novel was published in the famous medical journal The Lancet. The main authors were from Switzerland, and they brought up an international case that had been dormant for many years, which was the personal story of former Palestinian leader Arafat.

Paper investigating Arafat's death

(Photo source: THE LANCET magazine)

After the article was published, the international community launched a heated discussion, with various parties arguing endlessly. Arafat died in November 2004, and it was determined at the time that he died of illness. Why did it cause a stir again 10 years later?

First of all, Arafat's identity is very special. He was the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Movement, was tough on Israel, was a hero in the hearts of many Palestinians, and won the Nobel Peace Prize. The sudden death of such a person must have caused a lot of controversy behind the scenes.

Tu Arafat

(Image source: Wikipedia)

Another reason is the paper's bold speculation about the real cause of Arafat's death - polonium poisoning .

Part 1

What is Polonium?

At this point everyone couldn't help but ask: What kind of poison is this "polonium"? I can't even pronounce this word!

Polonium (pronounced "pō"), number 84 in the periodic table , may not be familiar to many people, but it was discovered by the famous Marie Curie and her husband Pierre . Marie Curie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of polonium and radium, two radioactive elements.

polonium

(Image source: Wikipedia)

In 1898, the Curies discovered a strange phenomenon while studying the radiation emitted by uranium ore. The radiation from uranium ore was stronger than that from purified uranium. This showed that in addition to uranium, there was an unknown element in the uranium ore that was more radioactive than uranium. After further studying the sulfide precipitation of the ore, Marie Curie obtained some substances that were 400 times more radioactive than uranium. Although it had not been completely purified, Marie Curie had concluded that they had discovered a new radioactive element. In order to commemorate her homeland Poland (Polonia in Latin), Marie Curie named this radioactive element Polonium, which is translated into Chinese as polonium.

The Curies in the laboratory

(Image source: Wikipedia)

Polonium is highly radioactive and will release strong alpha particles in a short period of time and decay itself. Therefore, it is difficult for it to exist stably in the environment. Polonium has seven natural isotopes in nature, and only polonium-210 has a half-life of more than 3 minutes, but it is only 138.4 days. Therefore, the content of polonium in the strata is extremely low. Each ton of uranium ore contains only 0.1 mg of polonium, which is about 0.02% of the radium content, which shows the difficulty of Madame Curie's research work at that time. Polonium for industrial use is basically artificially synthesized.

Part 2

What is so poisonous about polonium, the “king of poison”?

Polonium is not only the protagonist of these science sketches, it is also known as one of the "most toxic" elements. Hydrogen cyanide is no stranger to everyone. It is toxic enough that a sniff or swallow of a small drop will kill you. Polonium-210 is 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide. One gram of polonium-210 can theoretically kill 10 million people.

And as mentioned earlier, the half-life of polonium-210 is only a little over 100 days. Unless it is detected immediately at the time of the crime, it will automatically disappear without a trace over time. This undoubtedly makes the investigation of the case even more difficult.

The first death from polonium poisoning in history occurred in the Soviet Union in 1954. A 41-year-old man inhaled aerosols containing polonium-210 in his work environment. He developed severe vomiting and fever the next day and died 13 days after exposure. Israel has also had laboratory polonium exposure incidents. Some even suspect that the cause of Marie Curie's daughter Irene's leukemia was also a polonium balloon explosion in 1946.

Part 3

The mystery is solved, is polonium the real murderer?

However, the above cases are all accidents related to polonium. The actual murder using polonium did not happen until the new century. In 2001, a former Russian agent named Litvinenko died in the UK. After five years of investigation, the cause of death of the former agent was finally determined to be poisoning with a lethal dose of polonium-210.

Perhaps it was the outcome of this case that inspired the scientists in Lausanne, Switzerland. Arafat's health suddenly deteriorated, with vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and eventually acute renal failure. This is indeed similar to previous polonium poisoning (but to be honest, these clinical symptoms are not very specific). In 2012, researchers examined Arafat's clothing and personal belongings during his lifetime, and indeed found abnormally high concentrations of polonium-210 on some of his remains. This led to the Lancet paper mentioned at the beginning. However, subsequent teams from France and Russia conducted separate tests and concluded that the high level of polonium-210 on Arafat's remains was not the result of deliberate poisoning, nor would it cause his death.

So where did the polonium-210 come from? Some people speculate that it may be related to Arafat's smoking addiction. Arafat and his colleagues are heavy smokers. Tobacco does contain polonium-210, although the content is very low and cannot cause acute poisoning, but the toxicity of "smoking" for many years cannot be underestimated.

In 1964, the authoritative academic journal SCIENCE reported that tobacco contained polonium-210.

(Image source: SCIENCE)

Part 4

"Killer" is just a side job, what is Polonium's main job?

Polonium, the element that Madame Curie discovered with great difficulty, has no other use except killing people?

Of course not.

Like its toxicity, polonium's applications also revolve around strong alpha radiation. As a source of alpha particles, polonium can be used to detect the thickness of industrial coatings; it can also be used to make anti-static brushes to eliminate static electricity on the surface of materials for easy painting. In the military, polonium has also been used to make detonators for nuclear weapons.

While radiating strongly, polonium-210 releases a lot of heat. One gram of polonium-210 can heat itself to 500°C and generate about 140 watts of power. Therefore, many spacecraft and artificial satellites use radioactive isotope thermoelectric generators with polonium-210 as a heat source. Among them, the more famous ones are the Lunar Walkers 1 and 2 launched by the Soviet Union.

Model of the Moon Walker series lunar rover

(Image source: Wikipedia)

Finally, a friendly reminder: as a rare radioactive element with extremely toxicity and military uses, polonium is strictly controlled by the government. Ordinary people like us just need to learn some interesting knowledge about it.

References:

1.https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61834-6/fulltext

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat

4. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.143.3603.247

5. https://web.archive.org/web/20090115130308/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6180432.stm

6. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0952-4746/27/1/001

7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073815004119?via%3Dihub

8. https://web.archive.org/web/20220622210243/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/05/russia.science

9. https://web.archive.org/web/20220624104414/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/11/6/polonium-a-silent-killer Produced by: Science Popularization China

Production: Deuterium Deuterium

Producer: China Science Expo

The article only represents the author's views and does not represent the position of China Science Expo

This article was first published in China Science Expo (kepubolan)

Please indicate the source of the public account when reprinting

Please indicate the source of the reprint. Reprinting without authorization is prohibited.

For reprint authorization, cooperation, and submission matters, please contact [email protected]