Secret agents, causing cancer

You've probably heard that former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died last month of acute radiation poisoning from polonium 210, possibly courtesy of the Kremlin. But while most people are aware that getting yourself on the hitlist of Russian intelligence services has to be hazardous to your health, not everyone may know about a much more ubiquitous and insidious source of polonium 210: cigarettes.

As Robert Proctor explains in today's NY Times, the tobacco industry has known since the 1960s that cigarettes contain significant amounts of polonium, perhaps increased by the use of phosphate fertilizers in tobacco cultivation. Along with tar, nicotine, and cyanide, pack-and-a-half smokers receive the radioactive equivalent of about 300 chest X-rays every year. So, like the unfortunate recent associates of the late Mr. Litvinenko, smokers are at significant risk of radiation-induced cancer over their lifetimes.

According to Dr. Proctor, cigarettes claimed about 10 million lives in the 20th century. But with the aggressive infiltration of huge global markets like China, this number could reach a billion in the 21st.

You've come a long way, baby.