What are the general effects of polonium-210 exposure on humans?

Question

Authorities grounded three British Airways jetliners in London and Moscow on Wednesday and drew up plans to contact thousands of airplane passengers as they broadened their investigation into the radiation poisoning death of a former Russian spy.

How is radiation poisoning spread, how does it enter the human body, (f.e. what does this have to do with the thyroid glands) and how does it gradually deteriorate the human body like an accelarated disease would?

Answer 1

Polonium-210 is radioactive and emits Alpha radiation. Alpha radiation is interesting in that it cant penetrate, but it makes things extremely hot and causes very rapid cancer to develop.

Alpha radiation isint all that bad if it just hits your skin, since your external layers of skin are already dead, but if it's ingested you're basically done for. Your cells begin to divide rapidly and tumors begin to rapidly form. Leukemia is common if the amount ingested is small (extremely small). If you ingest 1 microgram you are very likely to die within 3 months.

Funny story, trace amounts are in cigarettes, and is the suspected cause for most of the lung cancer cases. Tasty.