Was Arafat poisoned by radioactive polonium?

Yasser Arafat The Maybe-Murder of Yasser Arafat: In a must-read post on Wired Science Blogs, Deborah Blum points out that despite the recent confirmation of traces of radioactive polonium-210 in the exhumed remains of Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat, it is far from certain that he died of radiation poisoning. In October 2004, a month before he died, Arafat developed vomiting and abdominal pain. The symptoms were so severe that he was transferred from his home on the West Bank to a hospital in France. The direct cause of Arafat’s death — which occurred on November 11 — was a hemorrhagic stroke. Blum points out this his clinical course did not suggest acute radiation syndrome. Specifically, there was no evidence of bone marrow suppression or hair loss. (To my mind, this would rule-out polonium-210 as the cause of death.) She also notes that since polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days, over 20 half-lives passed between the time of his death and the testing of his remains. Thus, any polonium-210 present at the time of death would have virtually disappeared, forcing scientists to look for indirect evidence of poisoning. In addition, the gravesite contained a large amount of naturally occurring radon, which has a decay chain that forms polonium-210. More reports on this are pending. Blum concludes: “I find myself looking forward to publication of the findings from the Russian and French laboratories, wanting to know if these first f...
Source: The Poison Review - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Medical acute radiation syndrome arafat cesium himalayan mountain salt hypokalemia pablo neruda poisoning polonium-210 radioactivity smacc 2013 weekly web review in toxicology Source Type: news