Clearing The Air

KGB agent's death being used to demonize tobacco in the media, ...talk about pushing an unrelated agenda

Recent events, specifically the former Russian KGB agent who allegedly was assassinated by exposure to a massive dose of polonium 210, have brought polonium 210 to the forefront of news headlines worldwide. One reporter, E.D. Hill from Fox News Friday 11/24/06 AM spoke of the KGB agent's death from radioactive polonium 210 and stated in the same breath that it's "...also found in the bloodstream of smoker's......" Another media attempt to demonize tobacco in an unrelated and out of context manner.

Tobacco control activists love to use the "4000" chemicals scam as proof that evil tobacco companies "add" all sorts of dangerous chemicals to their product. However, the fact of the matter is that polonium 210 and all of the other alleged "4000" chemicals are found not only in tobacco plants, but also lettuce, carrots, potatoes etc. etc......anything grown from the soil......or any animal or human which ingests the plants grown from the soil, because polonium 210 is found naturally along with arsenic, formaldehyde.....etc....etc. From this website you can get all the basic facts about polonium 210.

Polonium-210 is naturally present in all environmental media at very low concentrations. In soils, the concentration is similar to that of uranium, averaging about 1 pCi/g (or one trillionth curie per gram). Because polonium-210 is produced from the decay of radon-222 gas, it can be found in the atmosphere from which it is deposited on the earth’s surface. Average annual air concentrations range from 0.005 to 0.04 pCi/m3. Polonium-210 is also emitted to the atmosphere during the calcining of phosphate rock as part of the production of elemental phosphorous. Although direct root uptake by plants is generally small, polonium-210 can be deposited on broad-leaved vegetables. ...........It is estimated that the average Western diet includes from 1 to 10 pCi of polonium-210 per day. Polonium-210 can be significantly elevated in residents of northern lands who subsist on reindeer that consume lichens, which absorb trace elements from the atmosphere.

Polonium can be taken into the body by eating food, drinking water, or breathing air. Between 50% and 90% of the polonium taken in by ingestion will promptly leave the body in feces. The fraction remaining in the body enters the bloodstream. In general, the spleen and kidneys concentrate polonium more than other tissues except for temporary deposition in the lung after inhalation of an insoluble form. It is estimated that approximately 45% of ingested polonium will be deposited in the spleen, kidneys, and liver, with 10% deposited in bone marrow and the remainder distributed throughout the body. The amount of polonium in the body will decrease with a half-time of 50 days.

-Armed with this new information it sounds to me as though lawmakers should ban food, air, and water........afterall what did surgeon general Carmona say? "....there is no safe level...."

Tobacco control activists' demonization, lies and half truths about tobacco don't necessarily surprise me any longer.......what surprises me is that the media, especially FOX News, is now leading the charge.......and as Dr. Siegel has pointed out.......tobacco control activists' lies are beginning to erode their credibility.......so too will it erode the medias' credibility.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 10:18 AM