RARE -- CHAPTER 8 -- PALE HORSES

CHAPTER 8 – PALE HORSES

This chapter talks about examples of heavy metal poisoning from both radioactive and non-radioactive sources.  The author recounts stories of thallium poisoning in the form of ingested thallium sulfate, once sold before 1972 as a rat poison.  Thallium’s deadliness arises from its similarity to potassium.  Potassium plays an important role in energy producing processes and as a gatekeeper in cellular channels.  Because of similarity in size and charge, thallium displaces potassium in these important metabolic pathways causing them to shutdown eventually leading to organ failure preceded by symptoms of hair loss and fingernail erosion.  The next metal is radioactive polonium-210 that killed the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.  Subsequently, a concentration of polonium-210 twenty times that of baseline was measured on Yasser Arafat’s exhumed body fueling a movement to declare his death as murder.  Polonium-210 is an alpha emitter and an occasional gamma emitter.  Because alpha emitters don’t travel far and can be blocked by layers of clothing, plastic, and paper, it does not pose a large a danger when exposed from the outside as it does when ingested.  Ingesting alpha emitters cause immediate damage to tissues in organs exposed to the emitter inside the body.  The mental cadmium’s health risks were also featured by the authors due to a couple of news media reports implicating this metal, not in an actual poisoning, but in a health scare.  Unlike thallium and polonium, the health effects of cadmium poisoning are not immediately deadly and arise from its presence causing the body to absorb less calcium in chronic cases leading to kidney and bone damage.  In the section, “Metals that are not actively trying to kill you”, the author describes the effective cancer treatment abilities of platinum-containing drugs such as cisplatin, primarily, combined with carboplatin and oxaliplatin.  Deemed to have fewer side effects than radioactive treatment and effective against many types of cancer, this combination of drugs relies on platinum’s ability to inhibit DNA replication and repair efforts in tumor cells causing cell apoptosis.  Still in its experimental stages, thulium, one of the rare earth metals, is being considered for use in brachytherapy, a form of radiotherapy where a metal is placed near the tumor cells.  Thulium-170 is the specific radioactive isotope being considered as it emits high-energy x-rays with a relative short half life, “allowing for the placement of a steadily firing atomic gun in the vicinity of cancerous cells, particularly in the case of prostate cancer”.  Lastly, the author presents applications of metals in the dental field.  In one of these, lower-cost palladium is being used to replace gold in manufacturing crowns; its density is about half that of gold allowing a lighter crown of the same volume.  Lasers used to remove cavities are made from erbium-doped crystals because erbium emits frequencies that are within the absorption spectrum of water.  The laser has the added bonus of being able to numb nerves obviating the use of anesthesia in special cases.

THALLIUM

·         Thallium became a popular murder weapon, made famous by an Agatha Christie novel, and was once referred to as the inheritance powder.

·         Thallium metal is insoluble in water but its salt thallium sulfate is.

·         Less than a single gram of thallium sulfate is enough to kill an adult.

·         Before 1972, thallium sulfate was sold in supermarket stores as rat poison.

·         Thallium in thallium sulfate has a size and charge similar to potassium ions.  When ingested, it replaces potassium in energy-producing processes and as gatekeeper to cellular channels.  The substitution causes these process to shut down leading to death in a handful of weeks, preceded by hair loss and fingernail erosion in the first week.

·         Stories of murders by thallium poisoning related by the author include the following:

o   “Caroline Grills, a grandmother in her early sixties living in Sydney, Australia, earned a commuted death sentence and the nickname “Aunt Thally” for the thallium- laced cups of tea she used to kill her stepmother and three in- laws. Thallium sulfate became a popular murder tool in the late 1940s and 1950s Australia, so much so that the government banned the sale of the chemical in rat poisons in 1952, decades earlier than the United States.

o   The perceived suicide of a Boston- area computer scientist in 2011 was later determined to be a thallium poisoning committed by his estranged wife, Tianle Li, a successful chemist who worked for a major pharmaceutical company, where she no doubt enjoyed access to a variety of thallium- containing compounds.

o   This means of murder is also still close to the minds of Iraqi citizens, as a 2008 poisoning incident targeting Iraqi soldiers left nine ill and two children dead after they consumed thallium- laced cake left as gifts. The Iraqis are, unfortunately, quite familiar with the aftereffects of thallium poisoning. Saddam Hussein used thallium as tool of choice to eliminate political dissidents. Members of Hussein's intelligence group, the Mukhābarāt, allegedly used the metal to taint drinks offered to prisoners held at the command of the president of Iraq in the moments following their release.

o   Unsuccessful plots designed to poison Fidel Castro and an imprisoned Nelson Mandela also made use of thallium.”

·         The effects of thallium poisoning can be reversed.  The large organic molecule, Prussian dye, and its 18 cyanide groups is effective in bonding thallium ions in the digestive system.  The dye molecules with its sequestered thallium ions are then excreted.

·         The pharmaceutical company Helytex manufactures Prussian blue capsules brand named Radiogardase which is stockpiled by the US government.  It is believed that in the event of a dirty bomb attack, radioactive thallium will be released as one of the components.

POLONIUM

·         Polonium is another scarce metal that has been used as poison.

·         Polonium is acquired from refined uranium deposits.

·         It is highly radioactive as an alpha emitter.

·         Former KGB agent who fled under Russia and granted asylum in the UK Alexander Litvinenko died of a massive heart attack from complications due to organ failure brought about by polonium poisoning [see interesting story in this chapter].  2006.

·         This case motivated Swiss scientists to exhume the body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (who died in 2004) to check for polonium poisoning in November 2010 and found 20 times the baseline amount of polonium in his bones.

·         From the section HOW DOES POLONIUM KILL?

·         Polonium – 210 is an alpha emitter and occasional gamma ray emitter.

·         “Pound for pound, polonium-210 is one of the strongest alpha emitters among radioactive elements, with each particle emission damaging DNA, chromosomes, and ionizing molecules within cells.”

·         Alpha emitters cause the most damage when ingested and the particles are in proximity of tissues and organs as they do not travel far.  They can be blocked by layers of clothing, skin, paper, or plastic.  The gamma radiation emitted is a small amount as to not pose a major threat. (inverse square law “moving just ten feet away from radioactive polonium decreases the energy one receives by 100-fold”).

·         The health risk of ingesting cadmium was described by the author as such: “Cadmium builds up in the body, depositing itself in the liver and kidneys and causing damage by oxidative stress as it stimulates the production of free radicals and peroxides.  As far as heavy metal poisonings go, however, the effects of cadmium are rather mild when compared to the immediate decline in quality of life seen in those who ingested thallium or polonium.  The unfortunate are likely to exhibit flu-like symptoms and intestinal problems, along with kidney and bone damage due to a decreased ability to absorb calcium in chronic cases”.

·         CISPLATIN or cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) is a small molecule drug used in treating lung, ovarian, bladder, cervical, and testicular cancer with fewer side effects than radiotherapy.  The other components of this complex ion simply act as a carrier for the metal platinum which carries out the therapeutic action.  The action of platinum in inhibiting the  reproduction of E. Coli bacteria was discovered when the same bacteria were subjected to electrical field using platinum electrodes to study the effect of these fields on the bacteria.  Instead, they determined that platinum was leaching into the bacteria’s growth solution and inhibiting cell fission process.

·         As a cancer therapeutic drug, cisplatin causes cell apoptosis by platinum binding to the cell’s DNA and causing cross-linking which prevents it from replicating.  Repair efforts are also stymied by cisplatin’s presence in the cell leading to cell apoptosis.

·         A more effective treatment with fewer side effects than radioactive treatment is when cisplatin is combined with other platinum-based drugs such as carboplatin and oxaliplatin.

·         Platinum is also used in silicone breast implants and the possibility of the platinum entering the body has been a cause for concern.  However, in the metallic form platinum is quite stable and less likely to have any reactions in the body; it is the ionic form of platinum that can cause cell damage.

·         Thulium, one of the rare earth metals, is being considered for use in brachytherapy, a form of radiotherapy where a metal is placed near the tumor cells.  Thulium-170 is the specific radioactive isotope being considered as it emits high-energy x-rays with a relative short half life, “allowing for the placement of a steadily firing atomic gun in the vicinity of cancerous cells, particularly in the case of prostate cancer”.

·         In other areas of the health field, restorative dentistry is making use of the metal palladium because of its similarity to gold, but lower cost, used in creating tooth crowns.  Another advantage is that palladium has a specific gravity a little over half of gold’s specific gravity allowing same size crown to be built with a lighter mass.

·         Another dental application is the use of lasers built from erbium-doped crystals to dissolve cavities.  The presence of erbium allows the emission of light at frequencies readily absorbed by water.   The emission also causes numbing of nerves which obviates the use of anesthesia.