throopw@dg_rtp.UUCP (03/02/86)
>> Plutonium is widely felt to be the most poisonous substance anywhere, >> even if you disregard the radioactivity. > The MOST POISONOUS substance anywhere. Do you have any references? Well, the first poster is exactly right. Plutonium is *widely* *felt* to be the most poisonous substance even disregarding radioactivity. The facts, however, do not support this contention *even* *with* the radioactivity. My source is an article from Science News last year (or maybe the year before that). Sadly, I don't have it available to quote from, but my near-photographic memory should be trusted by all, especially since I always leave my copies of SN near photographs. :-) The gist of it was that Plutonium is about as chemically poisonous as any other heavy metal (can you say "arsenic"?) However, organic molecules such as dioxin are worse by orders of magnitude. And botulism toxin is worse by still more orders of magnitude than dioxin. Even accounting for radioactivity, biological toxins like botulism are far worse than Plutonium. >> It has been said that less >> than a pound spread thinly enough could kill every human being. > Yes, but has it been said by anyone who knows what they are talking > about? Yes indeed, this is the point. "It has been said." And those who said it have been wrong. Now, if you took that pound, split it into 4.5*10^9 or so equal parts, and implanted each of these less-than-100 nanogram parts in the lung in such a way as to alpha-irradiate the surrounding tissue, you might get significant excess cancer deaths over the next few years. But that's about the worst that could happen, and that's only if we try our worst with the most advanced techniques to use the Pu to kill folks. A pound of botulism toxin now, split 4.5*10^9 ways and injected into each of the population... I'm not sure about that. >> In the shuttle tragedy, we lost seven lives, and Challenger. It could >> have been much worse. Indeed it could. Conceivably, the explosion could have happened on the pad, or worse still, (and just barely conceivable) could have happened in a populated area if the shuttle went off course and the RSO couldn't detonate the ET. However, *the* *worst* scenarios aren't made significantly more disasterous by having radioactives aboard. So there. -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw