# Why Kill With Polonium ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 28, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015 "2006-11-28T01:18:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/41 "2006-12-04T23:34:04Z")
[QUOTE=CurtC] … and ophelium is not even poisonous. [/QUOTE] It doesn’t float worth a damn, either. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/42 "2006-12-05T05:26:01Z")
[QUOTE=Wakinyan] Some intelligence expert on TV said that polonium might have been used because the victim will die slowly and without cure. As such, it is a cruel way to kill somebody, and sends a signal to other who might consider any form of betrayal. [/QUOTE] The slowness also allows the person who delivered it to be far away when the victim dies, perhaps in an undiscovered country. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/43 "2006-12-05T06:26:21Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] The slowness also allows the person who delivered it to be far away when the victim dies, perhaps in an undiscovered country. [/QUOTE] Or perhaps in a country that will refuse to extradite him. And guess what: Russia and Britain have no extradition treaty. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/44 "2006-12-05T06:35:33Z")
It’s a case life life imitating [art.](http://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Dogs-Martin-Cruz-Smith/dp/0671775952/sr=8-1/qid=1165300212/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-5743662-5461413?ie=UTF8&s=books) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/45 "2006-12-05T06:49:46Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Tb or not Tb, that is the question. :dubious: [/QUOTE] Whether 'tis nobelium the minde to sulphur The selenium arrows of out’radium francium Or titanium argon astatatine ytterbium And Bi opposing, indium ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/46 "2006-12-05T15:11:12Z")
Wow. Just wow. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/47 "2006-12-05T17:54:43Z")
I second the wow. Also, Russia sasy it won’t [extradite any suspects in Litvinenko’s death](http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/05/uk.spywrap/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/48 "2006-12-05T19:15:38Z")
I realize this has turned into a joke thread, but for what it’s worth, I heard a report on NPR that polonium can be found in static lense brushes avaiable at most camera stores and that the amount necessary to kill someone is the equivalent of two grams of salt, but because it emits only alpha radiation it has to be ingested, snorted or placed in an open wound to do serious damage. I am neither a physicist, a spy, nor the king of Denmark, but I have decent recall. I’ll see if I can dig up a cite. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/49 "2006-12-05T19:22:28Z")
[Polonium exists naturally in very low concentrations in our bodies and in the soil and air](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2690944&page=1) and can even be found in [static camera brushes](http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=1723) ---
**Author:** ![chicagogreg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chicagogreg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chicagogreg)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/50 "2006-12-06T04:19:50Z")
[QUOTE=micahjn] You can [order polonium](http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm) on the internet. However, I’ve read on blogs (so its true) that the amount you can buy is far below the lethal dose. [/QUOTE] Actually, the website (United Nuclear) is happy to point out that you’d need to purchase 15,000 of their PO-210 samples for the resulting amount to be lethal :dubious: So… I placed 15,000 samples in my PayPal shopping cart (yes, it let me do that). Total cost: $1,035,000 USD. Shipping and handling (this just gets me): $19.95 :smack: So, there ya go… ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/51 "2006-12-06T04:23:19Z")
[QUOTE=chicagogreg] Actually, the website (United Nuclear) is happy to point out that you’d need to purchase 15,000 of their PO-210 samples for the resulting amount to be lethal :dubious: **So… I placed 15,000 samples in my PayPal shopping cart (yes, it let me do that). Total cost: $1,035,000 USD. Shipping and handling (this just gets me): $19.95** :smack: So, there ya go… [/QUOTE] Welcome to the FBI’s radar screen. Hope you enjoy your stay. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/52 "2006-12-06T16:06:10Z")
[QUOTE=whole bean] I realize this has turned into a joke thread, but for what it’s worth, I heard a report on NPR that polonium can be found in static lense brushes avaiable at most camera stores and that the amount necessary to kill someone is the equivalent of **two grams of salt** , but because it emits only alpha radiation it has to be ingested, snorted or placed in an open wound to do serious damage. I am neither a physicist, a spy, nor the king of Denmark, but I have decent recall. I’ll see if I can dig up a cite. [/QUOTE] Actually, I think that should be “two _grains_ of salt.” ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/53 "2006-12-06T23:01:17Z")
[QUOTE=AtomicDog] Actually, I think that should be “two _grains_ of salt.” [/QUOTE] yes it should. thanks for catching that. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015/54 "2006-12-13T01:49:48Z")
From [_The Nation’s_ website,](http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=147021) 12/10/06: > [@](#): > > But what is also emerging, as the investigation and radioactivity spread to Germany, is an alternative hypothesis, a counter-story–focusing on the business dealings of members of Russia’s private security industry and the security (and health) risks posed by trafficking of the dangerous (and extremely valuable) radioactive isotope polonium 210. > > (To its credit, the New York Times’s William Broad–in two stories, “Polonium, $22.50 Plus tax,” Dec. 3, 2006, and “US and Foreign Regulators Consider Tightening Controls on Deadly Polonium 210,” Dec. 10–debunked the conventional media line that only the Kremlin had the wherewithal to administer a lethal dose. Broad writes that “public and private inquiries have shown that it proliferated quite widely during the nuclear era, of late as an industrial commodity.”) See also [Edward J. Epstein’s blog.](http://edjayepstein.blogspot.com/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kill-with-polonium/382015.md?page=2)