Something that puzzles me and can perhaps be explained by a forum contributor who has a Masters Degree in Science:
According to a member of the Swiss team that concluded Arafat was poisoned nearly definitely or at least virtually probably, radon levels in his tomb were 17 times higher in soil contaminated by his body fluids as opposed to soil elsewhere in the tomb, so it couldn’t have been radon that produced their readings.
What test is it that confirms biological fluid contamination in soil decades after burial?
Elsewere in the linked story it is heartening to see scientific peers raising some of the same doubts about the Swiss report as posters in this thread.
*“‘Mr Arafat’s immunological report was normal and anyone with a significant amount of radiation typically shows a suppressed immunological system,’ says radiochemist Jack Cornett of the University of Ottawa, Canada. Tests should have shown a significant depletion of white blood cells in his body, for example. Cornett praises the Swiss team’s methods but says if you put more weight on clinical evidence this would lead you to conclude that Arafat was not poisoned.”
‘You have two sets of observations which are inconsistent. The grave site and personal possession analysis has excess polonium. I don’t know how to explain the technical observations and, since I am a radiochemist, I believe what they did. They did a lot of careful checks and they are good scientists,’ says Cornett. ‘However, given the preponderance of evidence from cancer patients all over the world,’ he says it seems impossible to die from radiation poisoning without showing any symptoms."
“The levels of polonium-210 compared to lead-210 on his personal items stored after his death are anomalous, says Cornett. ‘It is very difficult to explain how you could get this anomaly unless someone had intentionally added polonium-210,’ he adds. There are issues regarding chain of custody with the evidence, he adds, both in terms of the personal effects but also the grave site, so purposeful contamination cannot be ruled out.”
“Atie Verschoor, a chemist at the Expertise Centre Environmental Medicine (ECEMed) in the Netherlands, believes the French got it right and she disagrees with the Swiss team’s findings. ‘There was a large variation in radioactivity, sometimes in the same parts of the body,’ she says of the Swiss report. She adds that the passage of time also made it very difficult to conclude Arafat was killed using polonium-210 given that so many half-lives have passed since his death in 2004. She also stresses there was no evidence of hair loss or bone marrow suppression, signs of radiation poisoning, when the 75 year old died.”*
“Professor Nicholas Priest, who formerly headed the biomedical research unit of the Atomic Energy Authority in Britain, told The Independent that, while poisoning by polonium “cannot be totally ruled out”, the symptoms were very different from those of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in 2006. The professor, a specialist in radiation toxicology, is one the few British scientists to have worked with polonium-210. He was involved in the research over Mr Litvinenko’s death – the only known case of fatal poisoning by the substance. “Key indicators it was not polonium [that killed Arafat] were lack of hair loss in the face, and no damage to his bone marrow, both of which were found extensively in Litvinenko,” Professor Priest said. Photographs show Arafat stepping into a helicopter on the way to France sporting a white beard, while pictures of Litvinenko in hospital reveal an absence of any hair.”
The character Sheldon was however embarrassed by the mistake and admitted to it. Honesty’s attempted spin out of it was the funny part.