London – British authorities are working with officials from 48 countries – including the United States – to evaluate about 450 people who were in London around Nov. 1 and fear they might have been exposed to the radioactive polonium-210 that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.
Britain’s Health Protection Agency declined to identify the countries, but the United States is among them, according to U.S. health officials. People who think they might have been exposed are invited to submit urine samples and consult with doctors; for most, the exposure appears to have been harmlessly small.
Litvinenko died Nov. 23 at a London hospital of polonium-210 poisoning. Police have since found traces of polonium at 17 locations in London, most prominently the Pine Bar at the Millennium Hotel and Itsu sushi restaurant in central London, both of which Litvinenko visited Nov. 1.
At the hotel and the popular sushi restaurant, many others, including visitors from abroad, could have come into contact with the radiation, officials said. Other affected locations include office buildings in central London, the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, a Best Western hotel on Shaftesbury Avenue and several London area hospitals where Litvinenko was treated before he died.
Any health risk remains extremely low to those who happened to walk by or be seated near Litvinenko or otherwise cross paths with the radiation trail his poisoning left behind, health officials said.
The Health Protection Agency announced Thursday that urine tests indicated that 103 people in Britain had “probable contact” with polonium-210 but that their levels were so low it was “no health concern to the individual.”
In all, nearly 600 people were tested because they feared they were contaminated. Thirteen people “received doses which are not significant enough to result in any illness in the short term” and long-term risk was “very small,” health officials said.
The 13 are Litvinenko’s wife, Marina; a staff member at the Sheraton; a staff member of the Best Western; two guests at the Millennium Pine Bar; and eight employees of the Millennium, a health official said.
