RADIOACTIVE SMOKE
- Tobacco plants accumulate small concentrations of polonium 210, a radioactive isotope that mostly originates from natural radioactivity in fertilizers.
- Smokers inhale the polonium, which settles in "hot spot" in the lungs and can cause. Its effects may lead to thousands of deaths in the US alone.
- The tobacco industry has known for decades how to virtually eliminate the polonium from cigarette smoke but kept its knowledge secret and failed to act.
- The food and drug administration now has the authority to regulate tobacco and could begin to use it by forcing manufacturers to reduce polonium content.
- A rare radioactive isotope called polonium 210, the poison that killed Former KGB Operative Alexander Litvinenko.
- Each cigarette delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs, and people worldwide smoke almost 6 trillion cigarettes a year.
- The tobacco industry has known about polonium in cigarettes for nearly 50 years, but they consciously decided to do nothing and keep its research secret.
- President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law in June 2009.
- Forcing the industry to finally remove polonium from cigarette smoke would be one of the most straightforward ways to start making cigarettes less deadly.
- 2 pathways leading from uranium to polonium in tobacco: through the air and through the roots.
- Smokers inhale the polonium, which settles in "hot spot" in the lungs and can cause. Its effects may lead to thousands of deaths in the US alone.
- The tobacco industry has known for decades how to virtually eliminate the polonium from cigarette smoke but kept its knowledge secret and failed to act.
- The food and drug administration now has the authority to regulate tobacco and could begin to use it by forcing manufacturers to reduce polonium content.
- A rare radioactive isotope called polonium 210, the poison that killed Former KGB Operative Alexander Litvinenko.
- Each cigarette delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs, and people worldwide smoke almost 6 trillion cigarettes a year.
- The tobacco industry has known about polonium in cigarettes for nearly 50 years, but they consciously decided to do nothing and keep its research secret.
- President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law in June 2009.
- Forcing the industry to finally remove polonium from cigarette smoke would be one of the most straightforward ways to start making cigarettes less deadly.
- 2 pathways leading from uranium to polonium in tobacco: through the air and through the roots.
There are some solutions to decrease the harmful of cigarette, research by tobacco manufacturers has shown that combinations of the following measures could virtually eliminate polonium 210 from cigarette smoke
* Add chemicals to tobacco so polonium 210 does not vaporize and get inhaled
* Switch to low-uranium fertilizer
* Wash leaves after harvest
* Use ion-exchange cigarette filters to capture polonium
* Genetically engineer the tobacco plant to have "hairless" leaves
Estimated that 30-50% of polonium could easily be removed from fertilizer and that washing could eliminate another 25%. Every year 440000 people die in the US from tobacco use and smoke-related diseases, which is approximately 20% of all deaths in the US. It 's not only affect to the smokers, but to the people around also.
So what?
- The manufactures should control the polonium in cigarettes to the users. And people who currently smoke cigarette or tobacco should stop smoking to protect yourself and people around you.
Says who?
- Brianna Rego
What if?
- there is no law of control tobacco? What will happen to people?
What does this remind me of?
- This remind me of "Puffing on Polonium" article