Seven members of the bar staff at the Millenium Hotel in Mayfair, who tested positive for polonium-210, were seriously ill and admitted in a hospital in Moscow.
Millenium hotel is where Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy, whose mystery death was reported a few days after he lunched with two Russian businessmen — Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun on November 1. It is inferred that Polonium-210 contamination is the cause for his death.While speaking in a press conference, the Health protection Agency said that the seven infected hotel employees face a "very small'' long-term risk of cancer and that they are monitoring cases of suspected polonium poisoning in the wake of Litvinenko's death.
Some of the affected bar staff members were reported to be suffering from flu-like symptoms. It is report that Litvinenko had suffered loss of hair, dehydration, and vomiting and low white blood cell count. These were the symptoms that indicated severe radioactive poisoning.
Polonium 210, the radioactive substance, chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium dissolves readily in dilute acids. The experts say that for poisoning someone, polonium has to be chemically combined in some type of dissolvable salt (example polonium nitrate), which can easily be added to food and ingested. When soluble polonium-210 gets dispersed in soft tissues, Kidney and bone marrow will receive high doses – they added.
Moreover, traces of polonium have been found in a number of places in London, which were visited by Litvinenko before falling sick, and many people including his wife, Marina, have tested positive for radiation.
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