U.K. authorities investigating the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko detected radiation contamination in a guest and a hotel worker at different London establishments.
Litvinenko died on Nov. 23 after exposure to the radioactive substance polonium 210. The isotope was later discovered in at least 12 London locations. Since then, at least 15 other people have tested positive for the substance, including the two reported today by the U.K. Health Protection Agency.
``In addition to the results we have already reported, a further result from a member of staff at the Best Western Premier Shaftesbury Hotel, Piccadilly, London, shows that they have been exposed to low levels of Po-210,'' the agency said in an e-mailed statement. ``A further result from a guest who visited the Pine Bar, at the Millennium Hotel London Mayfair, on 1 Nov 2006, shows that they have been exposed to low levels of Po-210.''
The trail of polonium has taken the investigation to Russia and Germany. Dmitry Kovtun, a Russian businessman who met Litvinenko on Nov. 1 at the Millennium Hotel, last month fell ill with radiation poisoning. Authorities in Germany found traces of polonium in places frequented by Kovtun in Hamburg before his visit to the U.K.
Polonium 210 is found in the environment and in people at low concentrations. It poses a risk only if is inhaled, swallowed or enters an open wound. The radiation it emits travels a few centimeters and can be stopped by a sheet of paper.
In both cases announced today, the levels of radiation poisoning are ``not significant enough to result in any illness in the short term and any increased risk in the long term is likely to be very small,'' according to the agency.
On Dec. 7, the Health Protection Agency said it was found in ``low levels'' in seven workers employed at the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar, which Litvinenko had visited on Nov. 1. On Dec. 19, positive results were announced for two more members of the staff at the Millennium Hotel and a hotel worker at the Sheraton Hotel on Park Lane.
Traces of polonium have also been detected in Mario Scaramella, an Italian friend of Litvinenko, who met him on Nov. 1 in the Itsu sushi restaurant on London's Piccadilly, and an unidentified adult relative of the former spy, according to the Health Protection Agency.
Litvinenko's relative, identified by U.K. newspapers as his wife, had taken in a dose of polonium that wasn't of immediate concern, according to the agency. Scaramella, initially told by doctors that his dose was five times the fatal amount, was later released from a hospital, after it was determined he only had lower levels of the substance in his body.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net .
Source: Bloomberg
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