🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan8.165057.3965@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov writes:
>In article <C0IADo.B1p@zoo.toronto.edu>, henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> The radiation hazard from plutonium 238 is insignificant; it's pretty much
>> a pure alpha emitter, and human skin stops alpha particles completely.  (A
>> sheet of paper will do likewise.)  You don't want to eat the stuff, but so
>> long as it stays put, no sweat.
>
>Somewhere in the recesses of my mind lies a memory of a scientist
>who offered to eat some plutonium if the journalist covering the
>event would eat the same amount of caffeine.  No takers, obviously,
>but does this mean that it would be safe to eat plutonium?  If it's
>inert it should be passed in due course with only the mucus coating
>the alimentary canal getting irradiated.
>
Edward Teller offered to eat a spoonful of Plutonium Oxide if the
reporter would eat a spoonful of _cyanide_.  Pu oxide is inert and would
be passed through the digestive system in a few days.  However, metallic
Pu _is_ very toxic, is absorbable into the bloodstream and would proceed
to kill you through several mechanisms at once.

Snorting the Pu Oxide would not be a good thing, as the lungs are
susceptable to developing cancer via alpha irradiation.  Pu (in any
form) is not the "most toxic substance on earth" as pure Botulism toxin
in more dangerous if ingested, as are a number of neurotoxins if
administered into the body.

-- 
Edmund Hack - Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co. - Houston, TX
hack@aio.jsc.nasa.gov - I speak only for myself, unless blah, blah..
"You know, I think we're all Bozos on this bus."
"Detail Dress Circuits" "Belt: Above A, Below B" "Close B ClothesMode"