Main Points:
- People worldwide smoke 6 trillion cigarettes a year
- The poison builds up to the equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest x-rays a year for a person who smokes one and a half packs per day
- Polonium causes thousands of deaths a year in the U,S alone
- The tobacco industry known about polonium in cigarettes for 50 years.
- Manufacturers devised processes that would cut down isotope concentrations in cigarette smoke.
- Big Tobacco decided to do nothing about it and keep research a secret. The consequence is that cigarettes still contain as much polonium today as they did half a century ago.
- Situation will change: in June 2009, Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law
- Legislation brings tobacco under jurisdiction of the FDA, allowing the agency to regulate components of cigarettes.
- Forcing industries to get rid of polonium could be one way to make cigarettes less deadly
- First time that polonium 210 was making its way into lungs of smokers was by chance.
- In the first half of the 1960s, the health effects of radiation and radioactive fallout were in the minds of the scientists and other people.
- Vilma R. Hunt and colleagues at Harvard were developing a technique to measure levels of radium and polonium. One day in 1964, she decided to test on cigarette ash. She found no signs of polonium, but then realized that the polonium turned into vapor and goes into the lungs while smoking
- In 1965 radiobiologist and physician John B. Little examined the lung tissue from smokers for signs of polonium.
- He was able to demonstrate that the polonium collected up in specific areas of the lung.
- They form hotspots of radioactivity, emitting alpha particles
- Over the next 10 years, scientists continued to research polonium in the cigarette smoke and how the radioisotope gets into the tobacco plant
- Polonium 210 is a decay product of lead 210. Hunt had two speculations: daughter isotopes of radon 222 and lead 210 settled on leaves or lead 210 in fertilized soil was absorbed through plant roots
- Researchers in the U.S Department of Agriculture took up the question of polonium from fertilizer.
- A 1966 experiment by the DA and the Atomic Energy Commission tested two kinds of fertilizers: a commercial "superphosphate" and a special mix made from chemically pure calcium phosphate.
- The commercial fertilizer had 13x more radium 226 than the special mix.
- Edward Martell revisited the issue in 1974. Martell suggested that soils containing uranium-rich phosphate fertilizer would release radon 222 into the atmosphere, raising concentration above normal levels.
- Radon would decay into lead 210, which would deposit on growing plants, sticking to thousands of little hairs called trichomes that cover tobacco leaves.
- Martell was concerned with the buildup of polonium 210 in particular areas of the lung. He said that because of smokers' chronic exposure to low, concentrated doses, polonium 210 was the primary cause of their lung cancer and other types of cancer.
- High exposure associated with a lifetime of smoking would leave the smoker at a risk of cancer despite the low dose of polonium 210 per cigarette.
- polonium 210 may be responsible for 2% of smoke-induced lung cancers and for several thousands of deaths a year in the U.S alone.
- Lawsuits brought by 46 U.S states against the industry forced manufacturers to admit that smoking is dangerous and addictive and resulted in the release of millions of internal documents
Author Point's:
The author is trying to tell us about the dangers and hazards of smoking. Cigarette's is the most toxic and radioactive. It is a danger to the world, animals , and people. Puff by puff, the poison builds up to the equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest x-rays a year for a person who smokes one and a half packs a day. That's a lot, and it's really toxic and that's why the author is informing everyone about these dangers so that they could make right choices, and know what are the danger's and risks. People worldwide smoke almost six trillion cigarettes a year, and each one delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs.
The author is trying to tell us about the dangers and hazards of smoking. Cigarette's is the most toxic and radioactive. It is a danger to the world, animals , and people. Puff by puff, the poison builds up to the equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest x-rays a year for a person who smokes one and a half packs a day. That's a lot, and it's really toxic and that's why the author is informing everyone about these dangers so that they could make right choices, and know what are the danger's and risks. People worldwide smoke almost six trillion cigarettes a year, and each one delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs.
My Thought's:
Mostly everyone knows that smoking cigarette's can really harm you body even though if you don't smoke a cigarette's you can also get the second hand smoke which is the smoke from the smoker can enter to your system and still can get harm from the haphazardness of the cigarette. Since most of my uncle's smoke's in the family I could see the effects of the cigarette effects especially one time when my uncle was suppose to do a early jugging then I started to see how slow he runs and always wanted to take a break. The most thing that I learned to this article was the fact of most of the products were made know's the harmless things that can happen to the people and why didn't stop making the product such as the tobacco company.
Mostly everyone knows that smoking cigarette's can really harm you body even though if you don't smoke a cigarette's you can also get the second hand smoke which is the smoke from the smoker can enter to your system and still can get harm from the haphazardness of the cigarette. Since most of my uncle's smoke's in the family I could see the effects of the cigarette effects especially one time when my uncle was suppose to do a early jugging then I started to see how slow he runs and always wanted to take a break. The most thing that I learned to this article was the fact of most of the products were made know's the harmless things that can happen to the people and why didn't stop making the product such as the tobacco company.
So What?
If the cigarette's or tobacco product's stop making this harmful materials for the smokers then I believe that many of them can end up really bad.
Says Who?
Brianna Rego
What if?
The cigar or tabacco wasn't discovered?
What does it remind you off?
All my relatives. (But they stopped smoking)
If the cigarette's or tobacco product's stop making this harmful materials for the smokers then I believe that many of them can end up really bad.
Says Who?
Brianna Rego
What if?
The cigar or tabacco wasn't discovered?
What does it remind you off?
All my relatives. (But they stopped smoking)