Examination of Arafats personal belongings suggest poisoning by polonium

[Carlis]

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/whatkilledarafat/2012/07/20127383653774794.html

Apparently, Arafats personal items like tooth brush and underwear are radioactive. The substance appear to be polonium 210, which is not naturally occurring, but rather, requires a reactor to produce.

This reminds quiet a bit about the Litvinenko case. But why some people use such an exotic substance is odd to me... Surely, the fact that u need a reactor to produce it narrows down the list of suspect quiet a bit. Not everyone has access to that...

What do you make of this?

 

[Fern]

Interesting.

Looks like they'll exhume his body, so we'll probably know for sure after testing.

I think we can all guess who'll be blamed.

Fern

 

[manimal]

^

nah he likes dolphins



This does sound like a Clive Cussler novel to me.

 

[unokitty]

The allegation is that after 8 years, they found evidence of a substance with a half life of 138 days?

And none of the medical personnel that treated him at the time noticed the radioactivity?

I think that the allegation requires more verification...

Uno

 

[woodie1]

Things are so quiet in the ME now it is about time for some new headlines.

 

[iGas]

The allegation is that after 8 years, they found evidence of a substance with a half life of 138 days?

And none of the medical personnel that treated him at the time noticed the radioactivity?

I think that the allegation requires more verification...

Uno

Perhaps you missed interpret half life of radio active materials and missed read the article.

Po-210 decays to stable lead-206 every 138 days.
Example: 1,000,000 parts of Po-210 will have only 500,000 active after 138 days, and the next 138 days there will be 250,000 active parts, and 125,000 active parts after then next 138 days, and so on...

See excerpt below.

Doctors in Lausanne had hoped to study the blood and urine samples taken from Arafat while he was at Percy Military Hospital in France. But when she requested access, the hospital told his widow that those samples had been destroyed.

“I was not satisfied with that answer,” Ms. Arafat said. “Usually a very important person, like Yasser, they would keep traces – maybe they don’t want to be involved in it?”

Several of the doctors who treated Arafat said that they were not allowed to discuss his case – even with Ms. Arafat’s permission – because it was considered a “military secret.” And most of his onetime doctors in Cairo and Tunis refused requests for interviews as well.

 

[Nebor]

I thought this was common knowledge? It was in my monthly AIPAC newsletter years ago.

 

[IGBT]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium

Long term (chronic) effects

In addition to the acute effects, radiation exposure (both internal and external) carries a long-term risk of death from cancer of 5–10% per Sv.[54] The general population is exposed to small amounts of polonium as a radon daughter in indoor air; the isotopes 214Po and 218Po are thought to cause the majority[59] of the estimated 15,000–22,000 lung cancer deaths in the US every year that have been attributed to indoor radon.[60] Tobacco smoking causes additional exposure to polonium.[6


..it may also have a reactor specific signature.

 

[kylebisme]

Sure, perhaps he was building a nuclear reactor in the compound Israelis had him confined to for the two years prior to his death.

 

[QuantumPion]

Perhaps you missed interpret half life of radio active materials and missed read the article.

Po-210 decays to stable lead-206 every 138 days.
Example: 1,000,000 parts of Po-210 will have only 500,000 active after 138 days, and the next 138 days there will be 250,000 active parts, and 125,000 active parts after then next 138 days, and so on...

See excerpt below.

"and so on"? I'll paypal you $5 if you count out the rest of your "and so on"'s until you get to 8 years / 138 days = 21 half lives. I double dog Chuck Norris dare you.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

There's little doubt as to the ability to measure the level of radioactivity and that the urine contained about 30 times the reference.

What we may have is Polonium introduced, but not the cause of death. The symptoms which preceded his shuffling off were not consistent with poisoning. He may have just died first.

 

[iGas]

"and so on"? I'll paypal you $5 if you count out the rest of your "and so on"'s until you get to 8 years / 138 days = 21 half lives. I double dog Chuck Norris dare you.

My bad, it would take an enormous amount for the radiation to last 8 years, but the left over lead isn't going away at anytime soon after the radiation is gone.

 

[pcgeek11]

I really don't see the point. 8 years later and nobody really gives a crap. Good riddance IMO.

 

[QuantumPion]

My bad, it would take an enormous amount for the radiation to last 8 years, but the left over lead isn't going away at anytime soon after the radiation is gone.

I double dog chuck norris dare you to convert 1 Ci of Po-210 into grams of Lead. Hint: you may need to convert into a more suitable unit, such as pico grams.

 

[MovingTarget]

How it may have happened: http://xkcd.com/965/

I don't see how they can prove it though considering how long it has been since his death. I'm honestly surprised that radiation and poison tests weren't done immediately following his death.

 

[QuantumPion]

There's little doubt as to the ability to measure the level of radioactivity and that the urine contained about 30 times the reference.

What we may have is Polonium introduced, but not the cause of death. The symptoms which preceded his shuffling off were not consistent with poisoning. He may have just died first.

maybe he undergoing radiotherapy for cancer?

 

[Howard]

Maybe someone with a grudge just decided to irradiate a corpse's life belongings.

 

[piasabird]

Why should we care?

He received millions for the poor palestinians and put most of it in a bank in a foreign country and his wife lived in luxury. He is just another rich leader of a terrorist mob. He died a rich man and his people were suffereing under his thumb.

He was the typical corrupt leader in the Muslim World. The blood of the innocent are on his hands.

Who exactly is missing this guy? Maybe his wife can sue for wrongful death. Maybe some of his terrorist friends wanted to get rid of him? Hard to say what the source of the contamination was from at this point. His wife might have killed him for his money.

 

[piasabird]

The funny thing is this is the kind of thing that Russians have been caught doing.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

A question for the physics type. To get at the final amount of radiation, what would the initial amount have to have been?

 

[Howard]

A question for the physics type. To get at the final amount of radiation, what would the initial amount have to have been?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_decay

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_decay

Well yeah. I'm tired and the units are in mBq, which isn't weight. It can be converted, but I'm too stupid right now and will probably make a calculation error.

 

[Howard]

Well yeah. I'm tired and the units are in mBq, which isn't weight. It can be converted, but I'm too stupid right now and will probably make a calculation error.

Doesn't matter what the units are as long as the material decays exponentially.

 

[QuantumPion]

Well yeah. I'm tired and the units are in mBq, which isn't weight. It can be converted, but I'm too stupid right now and will probably make a calculation error.

N(0)=N(t)*2^(t/t-1/2)

N is activity (e.g. Bq. Note 1 Bq = 1 decay per second, which would be impossible to detect above background radiation. 1 -milli- Bq would be 1000 times less possible to detect so I assume you meant 1 -mega- Bq.). t-1/2 is 138 days for Po-210. So if they found 1 MBq now, and its origin is purely from the decay of the original sample, there would have had to have been 2.3 TBq 8 years go - about 1000 times the dose that killed Alexander Litvinenko over a couple days. How long was Arafat sick for before he died? Months? Years?

 

[Sinsear]

Fascinating