Radioactive cigars

1993/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil have shown that some tobacco companies sell radioactive cigarettes. Tobacco, like many other plants, is not surprising that it has some uranium, but this amount is negligible and for the smoker is usually not dangerous.

In the case of Brazil, however, there are brands in which uranium types are twelve times the usual. In European cigarettes the amount of uranium of 0.007 ppm (0.007 parts per million) is the most common, but in six Brazilian cigarettes they have found from 0.28 to 0.88 ppm. This last amount means that smoking a pack of cigarettes equals two X-ray sessions.

According to experts, these extraordinary rates may come from some fertilizers used in the cultivation of the tobacco plant, from the phosphates of uranium lands.