Article Title:Radioactive Smoke Author/Source: Brianna Rego A: List the major ideas, concepts or key points- point by point

Each cigarette delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to our lungs. 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 Memos show that the tobacco manufacturers were concerned that they might suffer a public affairs disaster if what they knew about polonium came to light. Aware of the risk, the industry began to devote extensive manpower and money to develop internal research programs on polonium. Tobacco industry continued to monitor external research on the subject and to explore solutions of the polonium problem. Industry debated the drawbacks and benefits Another option was to wash tobacco leaves with dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide. Other ideas like using fertilizers with limited uranium from the cured tobacco leaf. Industry refusal to face a problem has only delayed it. After the passing of The Family Smoking and Tobacco Control Act, the American Cancer Society lauded it for requiring the tobacco industry to disclose the poison in its products. The World Health organization has made it clear that smoking is the most avoidable C.O.D. 1.3 million people die of lung cancer every year. 90% because of smoking If polonium has been reduced through methods known to the industry, thousands of those deaths could be avoided. B: Summarize the AUTHORs main point or idea- at LEAST 1-2 paragraphs This article talks about the problem of a chemical called Polonium 210 in cigarettes. Polonium 210 alone causes thousands of deaths in the United States. Smoking was also found to give a person a small dose of Polonium into the lungs. Polonium 210 is responsible for 2% of smoke-induced lung cancers. To make cigarettes less deadlier, removal of Polonium must be in order. The discovery of polonium in cigarettes started back in 1964 with a radiochemist named Vilma R. Hunt. With a new technique to test Radon and Polonium, she decided to test on one of her student's cigarette ash. She found no signs of polonium in her test results. She realized that at the temperatures of the cigarette, the polonium has turned into vapor. As a result, this vapor goes into the lungs of the humans smoking. How did

polonium get into cigarettes? Polonium 210 came from daughter isotopes of radon 222 and lead 210 on leaves or lead 210 absorbed through plant roots. 1.3 million people die of lung cancer every year and 90% of that is because of smoking, but it is the customers who have had to live with and die from the decision of using tobacco. C: Write a reaction paragraph to the article stating your own thoughts on the topic, using specific citations from the article to support your views I think that tobacco industries really should consider taking out the polonium in their cigarettes. Having a toxic chemical in your products is something I wouldn't want to have. If people discover the use of this in cigarettes, they might consider not buying the industry products, therefore losing money altogether. I think that finding an alternative could reduce the number of people diagnosed with lung cancer (and other cancers) and reduce the death rates from cigarette smoking. Finding an alternative could also be good for the environment by preventing pollution or also toxicating our atmosphere and waters. So what? Polonium 210 is in cigarettes and is accounting for lung cancer and also the deaths of thousands of people Says Who? Brianna Rego What if...? Polonium 210 wasn't discovered until recently? The rate of deaths from lung cancer or from smoking would be higher What does this remind me of? Contagion- the discovery of something helped save lives before more deaths happened.