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From: breuel@h-sc1.UUCP (thomas breuel)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.sci,net.bio
Subject: Re: Plutonium
Message-ID: <1069@h-sc1.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Apr-86 01:54:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: h-sc1.1069
Posted: Mon Apr 21 01:54:28 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 27-Apr-86 14:23:31 EDT
References: <358@drutx.UUCP> <1063@whuxl.UUCP> <2384@jhunix.UUCP> <708@whuts.UUCP> <885@harvard.UUCP>
Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center
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Xref: linus net.politics:14394 net.sci:446 net.bio:261

||A few pounds of plutonium *IF* properly distributed in tiny specks to
||everyone's lungs could indeed kill everyone on Earth.  Plutonium is
||incredibly toxic stuff.  However it would be practically impossible
||to distribute a mere few pounds of plutonium in such a way that it
||*would* kill everyone on Earth.  My point there was to show the
||incredible toxicity of plutonium which is awesome.
|
|A few pounds of carbon, *IF* properly distributed in everyone's brain
|cells, could indeed kill everyone on Earth.  However, it would be
|practically impossible to distribute a mere few pounds of carbon in such
|a way that it *would* kill everyone on Earth...

I hope you know that you are talking non-sense. Carbon is non-toxic
as a compound, and by just distributing it physically, it will kill
no-one. Release of plutonium oxide when missiles are shot down is,
however, a real concern. I do not have the exact reference, but
there was a discussion about it in the letters to the editor in one
of the recent editions of Nature, for those who are interested.

Plutonium is indeed one of the most poisonous substances in existence,
and regardless whether shooting down missiles will just kill a few
people through plutonium poisoning, or whether it will make the planet
uninhabitable, it is something that must be kept in mind when making
claims about how anti-missile weapons can protect the population.

Personally, I doubt that anyone can really anticipate the effects that
the release of large amounts of plutonium oxide in the athmosphere
would have.

						Thomas.