The Polonium Teapot

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news.independent.co.uk..." target="_blank" class="postlink">The poisoned teaplot: Polonium reading from hotel 'off the scale'


Radioactive teapot 'almost certainly used to kill Alexander Litvinenko was used to serve guests for several weeks after becoming contaminated'

Detectives investigating one of the murkiest international crimes ever to hit Britain - the murder of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko - believe a quintessentially English teapot is at the centre of the web of intrigue.

Test results from the Millennium Hotel in Piccadilly, central London, were said by sources yesterday to show a teapot was "off the scale" in readings for polonium 210, the radioactive isotope used to poison the Russian exile at the hotel on 1 November.

Police yesterday refused to comment on the reports, which also said the teapot was not tested until the second week of December, six weeks after the poisoning. The still-radioactive teapot would have been used to serve potentially hundreds of other guests.

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Yikes!!!

They forgot to test the teapot?

This story feels like a movie.

I feel for the guy. Not a good way to go.

I wonder why no one else got as sick as he did.

Originally posted by Jessicamsa
I wonder why no one else got as sick as he did.

Would it even have been recognized?

I have a feeling we may hear more on that subject.

I say old chaps, doesn't one "warm the pot" by rinsing the bloody thing out Before one sets out to steep a proper cuppa?

Veddy poor form not to wash the pot between use For Several Weeks, if one were to inquire.

Let's get real here.

Supposedly some one made Litvinenko a pot of tea, dumped a huge amount of very rare and very very expensive Polonium-210 into the pot, then served the tea to Litvinenko, making dang certain NOT to drink a cup of the poisoned tea themselves.

And Litinenko was none the wiser until he took ill?

And the authorities further want us to believe that either this particular pot, which I assume has been in constant use since the incident, has either never been washed, allowing the traces of Po-210 to remain detectable; or that so much Po-210 was used (remember, annual world-wide production of Po-210 amounts to less than 4 ozs!) that repeated use and washing has not eliminated every trace of the substance.

I'm sorry, I do not buy it!

Cover Up!

Sorry, I'm not up to date on the proper removal of radioactive isotopes from common dishes. How does one successfully remove the contamination from a glazed ceramic surface?

Washing is a good start.

Consider that the method of delivery was probably in the form of a very fine powder (so as not to be noticable while floating in suspension in the tea, the supposed method of poisoning).

Think about it: To kill, the Po-210 had to be either inhaled or ingested. The scenario being put forth by the authorities (and believed by Litvinenko himself, or so we are told) is that he ingested the poison. To be ingested, the Po-210 had to be in the tea, either as a dissolate, or in suspension; that is to say, either dissolved like sugar, or floating like bits of tea leaf.

Either way, if the pot is washed, or even re-used to steep more tea, the Po-210 had to have been washed out of the pot. If the Po-210 "stuck" to the pot, it wouldn't have been possible to gaurantee that a sufficient amount would be left in the tea to kill.

In this respect, the very "glazing" of the porceline pot would serve to provide a sealed, "non-stick" coating to the pot's interior, facilitating the complete elimination of any traces left behind; unless the Brits are accustomed to, and perhaps even welcome "traces of the last service" in their teapots? A rather unsanitary prospect, if you ask me.

And no, the fact that we are dealing with a radioactive substance here does give lend said substance any mystical "adhesion" properties.

It sure makes you want to rush to Britain and drink some tea doesn't it? That sounds so gross to not wash ones dishes.

Sounds messed up no matter what the truth.