doc-alert

Anne LandmanRadioactive Cigarettes
Collection/Source:  Philip Morris
Document Date: 19800402 (02 Apr 1980)
Length: 2 pages
Bates No. 2012611337/1338
URL of this summary: http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/177546.html
Document Images:  http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/syr46e00 
(A larger clear image can also be seen at
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ege97e00) 

    The radiation poisoning death of ex-Russian KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko
last week has brought a renewed interest in the cigarette contaminant
Polonium-210.  This confidential Philip Morris (PM) memo from 1980 written by
Roger Comes (a Associate Senior Scientist in PM's Research and Development
department in Richmond, Virginia) responds to news reports about a research
article that was published at the time by Edward Martell that revealed that
cigarette smoke contained low levels of the radioactive alpha particle emitting
constituent Polonium-210.  The memo confirms that PM was aware at that time that
smoke from their cigarettes contained radioactive lead and polonium, and that it
was derived from the uranium contained in the calcium phosphate fertilizers that
farmers regularly used on tobacco-growing soils. Comes states that

  "210-Pb [radioactive lead] and 210-Po [radioactive polonium] are present in
tobacco and smoke...." 

He also suggested that switching to another fertilizer could probably help the
situation:

  "...using ammonium phosphate instead of calcium phosphate as fertilizer is
probably a valid but expensive point..."

-------------------

Quotes 
  That phosphate fertilizer contains natural radioactivity is a well established
fact. Natural uranium accumulates in the phosphate rock...Uranium and its
daughters are thus carried through the mining and manufacturing process and
appear in the commercial product [the fertilizer used on tobacco plants]. Soils
to which these products are applied show an increase in radioactivity over that
naturally present and this increase is a function of the rate of application and
the number of years that the fertilizers have been used....Thus, the smaller
particles [of the fertilizer] which would be more likely to be made airborne by
normal farming practices, would be expected to settle out on the tobacco leaves
during the growing season and/or be more readily taken up by the plant root
system. 210-Pb [radioactive lead] and 210-Po [radioactive polonium] are present
in tobacco and smoke....For alpha particles from 210-Po to be the cause of lung
cancers is unlikely due to the amount of radioactivity of a particular energy
necessary for induction. Evidence to date, however, does not allow one to state
that this is an impossibility. The recommendation of using ammonium phosphate
instead of calcium phosphate as fertilizer is probably a valid but expensive
point.... ....The soluble 210-Po is that which one would expect to be cleared by
normal physiological processes...A study carried out by us has shown an increase
in the soluble 210-Po with time after harvest....

------------------- 

Company 

  Philip Morris 
  Author 
  Comes, Roger A. (PM Research Center R&D Dept., c. 1980) 
  Recipient 
  Osdene, Thomas Stefan, Ph.D. (Director of Science and Technology, Philip
Morris [1986]) 
  Started with PM in 1965. Worked in Chemical Research Division of PM 1965-66;
Chemical and Biological Research Division 1966-69; Director of Research
1969-approximately 1981; Director of Research and Extramural Studies in 1982;
Director of Science and Technology in 1986; Independent position in 1984 as
Director of Smoking and Extramural Research (Secret Operations). Reported to VP
Operations. Involved with Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR) 1988. Attended
PM's Operation Downunder Conference in June, 1987.

  Region 
  United States 
  Type 
  Memo 
  Confidential 
  Named Person 
  Martell, Edward (Scientist who published studies showing presence of
radioactive Po-210 in tobacco smoke in New England Journal of Medicine) 
  Subject 
  polonium (Tobacco smoke contaminant) 
  Derived from phosphate fertilizers
  contaminants (Unintended foreign additives in cigarettes) 
  Includes items such as bugs, bug larvae, pesticides or pesticide derivatives,
oils, rubber or metal shards from factory machinery belts, perfume, molds, paper
clips, blood, etc. that accidentally get into finished product.

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NOTE: This document was first posted to Doc-Alert in 1999.  The links have been
updated.

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Anne Landman
Center for Media and Democracy
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