Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: WHY AREN'T WE ALL DEAD???
Message-ID: <1989Sep20.165144.5562@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1292@argus.UUCP> <198@cfa.HARVARD.EDU>
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 89 16:51:44 GMT

In article <198@cfa.HARVARD.EDU> wyatt@cfa.HARVARD.EDU (Bill Wyatt) writes:
>Actually, Pu is *chemically* extremely toxic, certainly one of the
>most toxic substances around, although I don't know how it compares to
>the ones cited above. I think I've heard the amount of 40 micrograms
>as a fatal dose, and death occurs in minutes if it's inhaled as a gas.

One has to distinguish based on the route by which it gets into the body.
Inhaling fine particles is the bad one.  Ingested (eaten), plutonium is 
not a very impressive toxin, much less dangerous than some of the nastier
natural poisons.
-- 
"Where is D.D. Harriman now,   |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
when we really *need* him?"    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu