Disease relevance of polonium

• Critical support for this thesis is based upon experimental animal studies in which lung cancers that resemble adenocarcinomas are induced with as little as 15 rads of radioactive polonium, equal to one fifth the dosage inhaled by cigarette smokers who average two packs a day during a 25-year period [1].

High impact information on polonium

• Polonium and plutonium in an intertidal food chain [2].
• Coprecipitation and electrodeposition of polonium from sea water [3].
• Formation and emission of volatile polonium compound by microbial activity and polonium methylation with methylcobalamin [4].
• The biokinetics of polonium in nonhuman primates (Papio anubis) has been studied after intravenous injection of 210Po citrate [5].
• The "Buck Rogers Mystery Ring" of the 1950s was activated with polonium [6].

Biological context of polonium

• Measurements of the gastrointestinal absorption and tissue distribution of plutonium, americium and polonium in experimental animals [7].
• It postulates that this may be due to changes in modern cigarettes, with or without filters, which allow inhalation of increased amounts of radioactive lead and polonium and decreased amounts of benzopyrene [1].

Associations of polonium with other chemical compounds

• Measurements of polonium retention in the kidneys of 4 additional beagles given 210Bi citrate enabled us to model the retention of these emitters in the dog kidney and to estimate the kidney dose from the alpha radiation of 210Po following injection of either 226Ra + 210Bi + 210Po or 210Po only [8].
• The concentrations of uranium, thorium and polonium were measured in these samples and compared to background data from family members of the workers living in the same dwelling and from residents from the general population of Rio de Janeiro [9].

Gene context of polonium

• Lung cancer: is the increasing incidence due to radioactive polonium in cigarettes [1]?

References