A study has shown that smokers face the risk of radiation from polonium and led. both present in cigarette smoke.The radiation could cause Cancer.
STUFF THAT KILLED SPY IN EVERY PUFF.
With every puff they take , smokers might need to watch out for Polonium, the radioactive element that was used to kill RUSSIAN SPY Alexander Litvinenko.Several scientific studies suggest that radioactive Polonium which was found to be present in cigarette smoke decades ago may be delivering radiation into the lungs of every smokers.
Researchers at the institute of General Chemistry in Italy have just analyzed polonium concentration in 17 of the most frequently smoked cigarette brands in Italy.
Their results set to be published in the January 2007 issue of the Journal Health Physics, show that polonium concentrates ranged from 6.84mBq to 17.48mBq per cigarette.Bq or Becquerel, is a standard unit of radioactivity.
The Lung does from inhalation of cigarette smoke is much higher than the lung does from inhalation of atmosphere polonium or lead. The Italian researchers said in their report.
A study from the institute of Nuclear Technology in Greece, published earlier this year in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity , said the inhalation does by the smokers is 12 times higher than for non smokers.
Scientists had first reported polonium in cigarette smoke 40 years ago by demonstrating the presence of radioactive material in the tissues of cigarette smokers.
A research team the Argonne National Laboratory in the US had shown in the mid of 1960 that polonium levels in the rib bones of cigarette smokers were about twice the level of nonsmokers.
Two years ago atomic energy scientists in Egypt estimated polonium activity in smoke by analyzing its activity in fresh tobacco,wrapping paper, fresh filter ash and post-smoking filters.
They calculated that those who are smoking 20 cigarettes per day are inhailing an avarage 123 mBq per day of polonium.
Scientists suspect that cigarette smoking may lead to an increase in internal radiation does and thus contribute to the instance of Lung Cancer observed among smokers.
The study from Greece has shown that Dirty Tobacco leaves may also contain polonium.
Source:The Telegraph (Calcutta,India)
