Polonium-210

Is that a hot, new sportscar from Italy? Or is it the next version of Windows due out in 2010?

Neither.

It's a radioactive, cancer-causing chemical found in cigarettes and tobacco smoke that tobacco companies have been trying downplay for years. A new study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and Stanford University, found that tobacco companies suppressed publication of their own internal research about the presence and potential health effects of polonium-210. Based on a review of internal tobacco industry documents, the study found that tobacco companies for 40 years have been concerned about the public relations and litigation problems posed by polonium-210 in cigarettes and sought to avoid public attention to the issue for fear of “waking a sleeping giant,” as one Philip Morris document put it. The study found that tobacco companies “continue to minimize its [polonium-210’s] importance in smoking and health litigation and remain silent on the issue on their Web sites and in their messages to consumers.”

Citing prior research, the study states, “It is estimated that smokers of 1.5 packs of cigarettes a day are exposed to as much radiation as they would receive from 300 chest X-rays a year. PO-210 has been estimated to be responsible for 1% of all U.S. lung cancers…. PO-210 may be responsible for more than 1,600 deaths in the United States and 11,700 deaths in the world every year.” Polonium-210 received significant media attention in 2006 when it was found to have been used in the fatal poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander V. Litvinenko.

Source: Statement from Matthew Myers, outgoing President of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, dated July 16, 2008.