Vienna – The poisoning death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has turned the world spotlight on polonium.
But other potentially deadly radioactive substances are also around us, in smoke detectors and other household, industrial or hospital items.
Normally, they are either securely shielded or locked away. And like polonium-210, some of the most common are not dangerous unless eaten or inhaled, which safeguards normally prevent. But the Litvinenko case showed possibilities for misuse.
In the United States, loopholes allow just about anyone to buy radioactive material, either privately or by masquerading as a company with legitimate uses for americium, thorium, tritium and similar potentially hazardous substances.
Earlier this year, a report for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs found that “with ease, investigators purchased, received and transported radioactive sources” into the United States from Mexico and Canada.
Like other toxic radioactive substances, polonium has a variety of domestic, medical and industrial uses. Traces are found in antistatic brushes, though far less than the estimated 3,000 microcuries needed to kill someone. Larger quantities – more than enough to kill – are used in some specialized antistatic fans.
One company, Sandia Park, N.M.-based United Nuclear, sells it online in tiny amounts of 0.1 microcuries exempt from U.S. federal licensing restrictions.
Even more readily available is americium, a gamma and alpha particle-emitting byproduct of decayed plutonium, commonly thought to be lethal when ingested. It is a key component of many home smoke detectors, but someone looking to misuse it would need to crack open about 5,000 detectors to isolate the 1 gram of the substance believed needed to seriously sicken or kill.
