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> Why would anyone use Polonium 210 as a poisoning agent? It's a very rare agent that only very few assassins have access to, so most routine poison searches w
by Xylakant 13y ago
> Why would anyone use Polonium 210 as a poisoning agent?
It's a very rare agent that only very few assassins have access to, so most routine poison searches would not pick it up. Especially since the symptoms are basically nondescript. In addition to that polonium was pretty much unknown as a poison when Arafat was killed - the high profile Litvinenko killing was after Arafats death. The lethal dose is extremely low and even if it is detected, there's no antidote.
That's a pretty good stealth poison in my book.
- wavefunction 13y agoAnd it has a very short half-life compared to many other radioactive agents.
- moioci 13y agoWikipedia says chelation with mercaptopurine has been effective in mice. Not sure how quickly it would have to be given, though. (Wikipedia says biological half-life is 30 - 50 days.)
- Xylakant 13y agoProbably before the onset of the worst symptoms. Basically the cause of death is massive radiation poisoning and all the symptoms are radiation sickness symptoms, i.e. tissue damage.
- gngeal 13y agoI fancied the notion of stealth poisoning by heavy water. Who'd bother to actually check for it?
- varjag 13y agoAnd for every case where Polonium use was discovered, there could be dozens of poisonings that went unnoticed.