Polonium-210 Analyses of Vegetables, Cured and Uncured Tobacco, and Associated Soils

Abstract

Analysis of the edible portion of vegetables and samples of green leaf tobacco failed to show polonium-210. The cured samples of leaf tobacco and the soils that were analyzed all contained small quantities of the element. Muck soils contained three times as much Po²¹⁰ as did mineral soils. Solutions used commonly to extract "available" forms of many mineral elements failed to extract a detectable amount of Po^2l0. Indications are that Po²¹⁰ or its radioactive precursors are not taken up from the soil directly by plant roots but rather by sorption in dead, moist plant materials at the atmosphere-plant interface.