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" PopularMechanics.com, Nov. 30 -- Since investigators discovered traces of radiation on three British Airways jets yesterday and expanded their search today, the public health scare caused by the radiation poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in London has exploded into a mini-hysteria--one that experts say is largely overblown.  At least 2500 airline passengers have contacted British Airways over concern about exposure to polonium 210--the radioactive poison that killed the spy, Alexander Litvinenko--adding to the more than 1700 Londoners who&amp;#039;ve called the U.K. Health Protection Agency&amp;#039;s emergency line out of fear that they&amp;#039;d been exposed to polonium while visiting some of the same sites Litvinenko had. British authorities are closely examining at least 12 locations where radiation has been detected, some of which Litvinenko visited, and yesterday British Airways grounded three of its airliners. Polonium 210 is a rare, radioactive substance created by bombarding bismuth with neutrons. Its prime use is as an anti-static agent in certain industrial applications. Similar radioactive substances have been used as a poison, yet Litvinenko, a former colonel with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), appears to be the first person ever killed by polonium 210. He died a week ago, while living in exile in the U.K. after accusing his former paymasters of orchestrating a campaign of assassinations and murders in Russia.  The majority of news coverage has focused heavily on the long and agonizing death caused by polonium 210 poisoning--and now is tracking the apparent poisoning of former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar. But few reports have highlighted the negligible risk the radioactive substance actually poses to the public, and radiation experts say the hysteria is largely unwarranted. &amp;quot;There is an awful lot of ignorance about radiation,&amp;quot; says Gary Mansfield, a health physicist with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. &amp;quot;The risks in this case are being blown out of all proportion.&amp;quot;  Polonium emits alpha particles--high-energy radioactive particles that carry a double electrical charge. In layman&amp;#039;s terms, the particles are large and heavy: too large and heavy to penetrate even one layer of human skin. It&amp;#039;s the equivalent of trying to throw a basketball through a chain-link fence. &amp;quot;There is no health risk from external exposure,&amp;quot; says Joseph DeCicco of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. &amp;quot;If you walked through it, sat in it, got it on your clothes, you&amp;#039;re not going to get sick.&amp;quot; Kathy Shingleton, also health physicist at Lawrence Livermore, said: &amp;quot;If you were sitting on a plane and there was polonium 210 on the armrest, and you put your arm on the polonium for the whole of your trip, you are in no danger.&amp;quot; Polonium, say the experts, is only dangerous if swallowed or inhaled. Once inside the body, it is able to pass through the more delicate internal cell membranes, destroying cells, particularly in the bone marrow.  All of which leaves two large questions looming over the Litivenko poisoning: How did he come to swallow or inhale polonium 210, and, more importantly for investigators, whodunit? The prime suspect remains the FSB, whom Litvinenko and his supporters blame for carrying out the assassination on orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a former head of the KGB. The FSB succeeded the KGB as Russia&amp;#039;s federal secret service after the breakup of the Soviet Union. While the service was reorganized to adapt to Russia&amp;#039;s new world role, many critics say only the name has changed and the FSB remains KGB to the core. The KGB had a unit dedicated to assassinations and sabotage. Known variously as Department V and Department 13, the unit&amp;#039;s job was to eliminate Soviet political enemies and plan the destruction of strategically important roads, bridges and industry in countries like the U.S. and Britain. Dubbed the &amp;quot;dark core&amp;quot; of the KGB, Department 13 officers were specialists in &amp;quot;wet work,&amp;quot; murders designated as &amp;quot;special actions&amp;quot; by the political chiefs of the old Soviet system. KGB assassins had access to a huge range of exotic weapons, including novel poisons and toxins--including radioactive Thallium, which is extremely similar to polonium 210--designed by the department&amp;#039;s own scientists inside what was known as the &amp;#039;Kamera&amp;#039; or &amp;#039;Laboratory No.12.&amp;#039; Department 13 actions were particularly vigorous when it came to exacting revenge on KGB spies who defected. And, in at least one case, that revenge came in the form of radioactive poisoning. Nikolai Khokhlov was a former Department 13 hit man who&amp;#039;d defected to the U.S. in the 1950s, blowing the lid on the KGB&amp;#039;s special assassinations squads and plots. But in 1957, three years after he fled, Khokhlov fell ill after drinking a cup of coffee that, he said, tasted odd. Within 10 days, he was in a hospital suffering symptoms very similar to Litvinenko&amp;#039;s. Doctors eventually discovered he&amp;#039;d been poisoned with radioactive thallium that one of his former Department 13 colleagues had slipped into his coffee. Fifty years later, as Litvinenko lay dying, doctors at first identified thallium as the poisonous culprit. By the time they discovered the true cause of the poisoning, Litvinenko was dead, the first person on record to have died from polonium exposure. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a1078/4203560/>