A cat that looks like Hitler. Cats are known to be highly mystical beings. You never know who is hiding under the guise of a cute creature that lives next to you. Take a closer look at your pet - suddenly Adolf Aloizovich himself moved into it

Polonium-210, the substance whose name became known during the "Litvinenko case" of the FSB officer killed in London, turns out to be much more widespread than was commonly thought. Around 1.25 billion smokers around the world inhale it every day.

Cigarettes have been using tobacco leaves containing this carcinogen in the manufacture of cigarettes for more than 40 years, according to data published in the American Journal of Public Health. Tobacco giants such as Philipp Morris, British American Tobacco and RJ Reynolds for four decades withheld this information, fearing that it would reduce the addiction of smokers to cigarettes.

This conclusion was reached by Monica Muggli, an employee of the American Mayo Clinic, who examined millions of official documents of tobacco companies. According to her research, manufacturers discovered the presence of polonium in tobacco in 1964. In the 1970s and 1980s, giant firms attempted to rid their products of polonium, but failed, Muggli said on 20minutes.

First of all, because company executives were afraid that experiments and analyzes could lead to a change in the taste of their products, and the reasons for conducting large-scale research could not be hidden from the public. A note addressed personally to Philip Morris in 1978 contains the following warning: "We run the risk of awakening a sleeping monster."

The data on polonium is indeed scary: it is a dangerous carcinogen that has never been put at the service of medicine. According to Muggli, it is responsible for 1% of lung cancer cases among US citizens, which means that we are talking about 12 thousand deaths in year. The presence of polonium in tobacco is caused by the use of fertilizers saturated with phosphates.

These data were commented for the French Le Monde by Emmanuelle Beguino, director of the National Committee of France for the fight against smoking. She recalled that "polonium is no more than one of the 4,000 toxic components that are contained in every cigarette."

It should be noted that back in 1991, the International Agency for Research on Cancer published the results of the first major study of human exposure to polonium-210. The study, in particular, cited the following statistics: about 22.5 thousand people worked at nuclear facilities, approximately 9.4 thousand of them were exposed to radiation, of which 638 people were exposed to polonium-210.

Almost everyone knows that smoking is dangerous and causes cancer. But many smokers still do not know that a cigarette is a source of radioactive exposure and that considerable doses of polonium enter the body along with cigarette smoke. This became known only in 2008 after the publication of a number of studies conducted by American scientists. Moreover, radioactive polonium-210, which is present in all cigarettes, settles not only in the lungs, but also on the surrounding furniture, increasing the radiation background of the room. No wonder Americans try to settle in rooms for non-smokers.

Important
Between 3.5 and 5.4 million people die every year from smoking, which is more than from tuberculosis, AIDS, complications during pregnancy and childbirth, road accidents, murders and suicides combined. WHO representatives believe that by 2030 this figure will grow to 30 million, and the population of developing countries will suffer to a greater extent.

The radioactivity of cigarettes is a proven fact!

For the first time, studies on the radiation hazard of cigarettes were published in 1964 by American doctors E. Redford and V. Hunt in the journal Science. According to them, smokers detonate deadly "polonium" bombs in their homes, cars and offices, because when tobacco is burned, polonium-210 is released into the air along with cigarette smoke. A person who smokes two packs a day ends up receiving 7 times the annual dose of radiation administered to people working with radioactive substances (50 mSv). And this is only when calculating alpha exposure. Taking into account the beta particles of bismuth-210 and lead-210, the total annual radiation dose of 20 exceeds the level established by NRB 99/2009.

Information about the radioactivity of cigarettes was first made public in 2008 in the United States, although the first data were known as early as the 60s of the 20th century, but were hidden by manufacturers. As it turned out, industrial tobacco contains not only 4,000 harmful substances, thirty of which are especially toxic poisons, but also radioactive polonium-210. Subsequently, other radioisotopes were found in cigarettes - radium-226, radium-228, lead-210, cesium-226, thorium-228 and potassium-40, which accumulate in the bone marrow, lungs, endocrine glands and serve as a source of ionizing radiation.

Interesting fact
Most smokers know that three drops of nicotine kill a horse, one - a dog, and a quarter of a drop is enough for a rabbit. But, despite the active anti-tobacco policy and propaganda healthy lifestyle life, every year the number of smokers only increases. It is expected that up to 1.64 billion people will smoke in the world by 2030.

Dose of exposure to cigarettes

Cigarette smoke is a source of internal ionizing radiation. Smoking a pack of "light" cigarettes, a person receives a radiation dose that is 7 times higher than the maximum allowable level. A medium-strength cigarette gives a dose of radiation comparable in power to the X-ray irradiation of a single fluorography session. If one procedure gives 1-2 mSv, then it turns out that when smoking two packs, a smoker voluntarily receives a total annual dose of ionizing radiation equal to 500 lung x-rays or 250 chest x-rays.

How do radioactive substances get into tobacco?

The main cause of radiation contamination of leaf tobacco is industrial phosphate fertilizers made from apatite. They are added to reduce the concentration of nitrogen in tobacco leaves, which affects the taste of finished cigarettes. Most phosphate deposits contain a high concentration of uranium, and during the mining and processing of ore, radon is released, which makes an additional contribution of radionuclides. Accumulating in the upper layers of the leaves, they pass into tobacco smoke during smoking and irradiate the smoker with a stream of alpha, beta and gamma particles. According to experts from a well-known cigarette manufacturer, published back in 1968, the radiation contamination of tobacco raw materials used by it corresponds to 0.33-0.36 pCi per 1 kg. The company's website also contains a detailed report by the Chief Medical Officer of the United States, which confirms the presence of radionuclides in tobacco smoke.

Methods for reducing radiation contamination of tobacco

For decades, cigarette manufacturers have tried to solve the polonium problem. different ways but so far have not been successful. They used the following methods:

1. Washing tobacco leaves with water. As a result, the concentration of polonium-210 was reduced by only half, in addition, the characteristic tobacco aroma was lost, and the washing process itself turned out to be quite laborious and expensive under production conditions.
2. The use of special filters in cigarettes. Studies have shown that they retain only 40-50% of polonium and do not solve the problem of radiation contamination of tobacco leaves.
3. Selection of raw materials. Tobacco harvested in the United States contains a third more radionuclides than grown in developing countries. This is due to the fact that American manufacturers use more phosphate fertilizers to give tobacco a rich taste. Ultimately, the leading "cigarette" giants opted for American tobacco, since cigarettes with a weak taste and smell are not in demand among buyers.
4. Creation of genetically modified varieties of tobacco that do not absorb polonium-210. The resulting plants lost their biological qualities and were not suitable for making cigarettes.

But still effective method purification of tobacco leaves from polonium radionuclides was found back in 1980. It consisted in the treatment of leaves with acid, which completely removes insoluble complexes of polonium. But tobacco companies have refused to adopt the technology, citing the implications for environment. According to independent experts, the whole point is that the acidic environment ionizes nicotine and makes it difficult for it to be absorbed from the brain, depriving the smoker of the feeling of pleasure from a smoked cigarette.

Some tobacco companies took it easy and conducted studies that proved the safety of small doses of polonium for the health of smokers. The reliability of the obtained data caused a lot of controversy among medical specialists, who have a considerable amount of data on the effect of ionizing radiation on the formation of cancerous tumors.

The impact of radioactive nuclides on humans

The radioactive components of tobacco smoke are the strongest carcinogens. As studies have shown, alpha particles emitted by radioactive elements contained in tobacco bind to the resin and, together with it, settle in the human bronchi. Internal alpha irradiation is considered the most harmful and, by itself or in combination with other carcinogens, promotes malignant cell transformation.

Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, larynx cancer and other serious diseases. The smoke of unfiltered cigarettes retains up to 80% of polonium, which penetrates and accumulates in the lungs during smoking. This was confirmed by the results of the autopsy of smokers and non-smokers: the bronchi of smokers contained seven times more polonium than those who did not have this bad habit. The presence of radioactive polonium in respiratory system of non-smokers is explained by the fact that at work, in public places, on vacation and at home, they inhale tobacco smoke distributed by smokers.

Studies show that the smoke of different brands of cigarettes contains different amounts of radioactive isotopes, and the cigarette filter absorbs only a small part of them. But tobacco manufacturers do not clean the tobacco leaves they use, believing that this will attract unnecessary attention and make anti-tobacco programs more effective.