Plutonium dust may cause lung and bone cancer.
>From http://www.antenna.nl/nvmp/pluto.htm
If somebody inhales plutonium dust, he won't notice anything special. Only 10 to 50 years later is it possible that lung and bone cancer may develop. Once in the lungs, the plutonium dust stays there for many years: sparks that fail to extinguish. Ten per cent of the original dose in the lungs can still be found there after fifteen years (as experiments with beagle dogs have shown). Very slowly the particles move to the lymph nodes of the lungs. When it appears in the blood plutonium "seeks" the bones and the liver. Even when the concentration of the plutonium dust in the air is very low, accumulation of this plutonium in the lung may become a serious burden. The animal experiments have allowed scientists to calculate what may happen in human lungs after inhalation of plutonium dust. They found that as little as a 27 millionth of one gram of plutonium dust (27 micrograms of 239Pu oxide) is enough to cause a lung cancer. That is why in the handbooks the maximum permissible concentration of plutonium is among the lowest of all radioactive substances.
Plutonium in food or drinking water is not an important issue, because it is hardly taken up by the gut.
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Leigh Meyers wrote:
>
> >Doug Henwood Posted:
> >
> >"[via Popbitch, of all places]"
> >
> > >> Dirty Lies <<
> > Radiation bombs are a government fantasy
> >~~~
> >Right... and DU is an excellent source of heat to
> "cook" MREs.
>
> Do you have some source of info that the BBC
> doesn't?
>
> Doug
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