@@이주영-h5j9n Pro Putin Troll are you ? I sadly encountered one on another channel. Guess its a change from MAGA trolls...oh wait, different sh#t, same smell.
I agree, the radiation/nuclear ones are the best. I wish they could do a video about the Sellafield site in the UK, and the UK's approach to nuclear reprocessing. I've seen the Windscale fire one, but there are plenty of others to feature. Another one could be the Dounreay site, and the various mishaps that occurred there.
Agreed. There's something about the writing and the delivery that perfectly captures the weird haunting place radiation events occupy in my mind. It's this weird unseen terror that breaks you down on the most fundamental level and the effects are unpredictable and often random. It's alien and antithetical to the natural human condition, and Plainly Difficult delivers that in spades.
Radiation poisonings and nerve agents are probably among the scariest threats for me. Most other types of threats can either be identified and mitigated before they are too much of a risk or can be planned around and dealt with. Unless you live life in perpetual fear and test *everything* and come into contact with the fewest things possible it's extremely hard to do anything about either of those threats and they are extremely and *rapidly* lethal with very little you can do about it after the fact. The only 'saving grace' I suppose is that they are somewhat difficult to acquire and come across, and don't usually occur in nature, particularly in the case of the more scary nerve agents
Same here those are some of the scariest things. Another is if someone can weponize prions that's a cruel way to go and untreatable. These sort of fears grip me because I work in the security field as a bodyguard in south Korea for kpop idols. We had a scare like this a long time ago, a angry fan was very upset with the members and decided to poison this kid yunho, they disguised themselves as staff and gave him a cup of orange juice laced with cyanoacrylate= super glue. Luckily it didn't work out and didn't cause much harm as it was caught very early on. He was quickly wisked away from the event and to the hospital and everything was fine. But yes stuff like radiation poisoning is a big scare for me. Luckily these types of fans are rare and don't possess the will nor the knowledge to do this type of shit
Just don't share that pic of Putin as a gay clown, or the one of Putin being ridden by a donkey by Vladimir Zelensky, or be a journalist critical of Little Vladdie's no dick energy and you'll be safe from being assassinated via radioactive/nerve agents. You might suffer a tragic unexpected fall out of a window after shooting yourself in the back of the head tho.
It’s nightmarish how much people underestimate bioweaponeering since it doesn’t look at near as a big boom. Ken Albiek’s book Biohazard after he defected to the US has stuck with me to this day. Especially Japan’s Water Purification Unit 731. And how they were just 2 weeks away from dropping billions of bioengineered plagued flea canisters on San Diego before Nagasaki and Hiroshima
@@skivvy3565 They were never "close" to dropping Flea's on the U.S.; as they didn't have the means to get across the ocean as we had SANK most of it's Navy by the end of 1943, beginning of '44. Also, Unit 731 was always known/listed as being a Bio-Weapons research department for the IJA.
@@skivvy3565 yes most people do. but trust me us in the security services keep a close eye on this stuff. even the kpop agency that employees us has a team dedicated to watching for threats like this. Funnily enough it benefits national security as well as they can always refer info to the police and other agencies. Because believe it or not the federal and local law enforcement arent always the first people to come in contact with something or be the first warning that something is up.
My father has a degree in nuclear engineering. He worked in the 80s during the cold war on a nuclear submarine doing multiple patrols. In the 90s, after I was born, I remember him working at a nuclear plant in New Jersey. There had been a few incidents there, but there was one he told me about. Somehow him and another plant worker fully in gear had contamination spilled on their clothing. When they went into the room to get undressed and go through the sensors, the alarms started blaring. They looked at each other and said "well this is bad". They quickly took him, and the other worker to a decontamination room, showered him multiple times, and burned all his clothing. Luckily, he didn't breathe anything in, and after a few days was free to come home. He's still alive, still working in the nuclear field, and about to retire.
I knew there was some contamination at places he was at, but had no idea the extent of contamination all over London as well as on the airlines themselves. Incredibly lucky that nobody else seems to have suffered a similar fate from this contamination.
Alpha emitters can't travel through your skin so you need to inhale or ingest it (or get it into a cut) for it to be dangerous. That is why it is so effective as a poison. The others most at risk would be anyone that drank from that teapot, it would be interesting to know how many they managed to trace. Although, if it was well washed out there would be minimal amounts left.
The recklessnesss of the agents, who brought the substance on a commercial airplane and then just poured it down the drain is probably just as scary as the murder itself.
@@theodorTugendreich That isn't what the investigation and report stated - the two others were known KGB operatives, one of whom later ended up in the Duma. Rather it was a deliberate assassination and the Russian authorities refused to cooperate at every level. If they were truly "normal thieves" then the authorities would be very active as they wouldn't like people running around uncontrolled with radioactive isotopes.
@@DJB10T1C Yea I would hate to be the maintenance guy at the hotels they dumped the stuff at.. I doubt they pulled out all the plumbing fixtures and drainpipes. I would not be surprised if that stuff hung arround for a while. Likewise I would not want to be the next customer to get served from that teapot.
So cool of you to rework this so it could be published, and as a bonus video no less! I've read about this incident but didn't realize the enormous amount of contamination it caused.
Same. The KGB/FSB have the wildest methods for successful assassinations around. (For wild UNsuccessful assassination methods, check out the CIA's history with Castro. 🤣)
Definitely feels to me like this is a particular poison that an assassin would only use when the goal is to make an example of someone to scare others.
As a crime and diplomatic transgression, this was definitely up there with the all time worst cases in the sense that it was so blatant, kind of bungled and still to this day a great injustice.
@@krissteel4074 Hopefully. The irony is, all history is gonna remember him for is being Putin the Not So Great. He's so deluded in his megalomania he actually thinks he's doing great things....
While I don't fault first responders or even the first couple of specialists for not realizing he'd suffered radiation poisoning, the seeming lack of urgency by healthcare professionals in this case is deeply troubling to me.
Do you have any idea how totally out of this world extraordinary unbelievable such a case would be to any doctor except maybe one who works for intelligence agencies or nuclear regulators? As an MD I can tell you that this would be the very last thing in my differential diagnosis if I was confronted with a similar case. I frankly find it astonishing that they were even able to diagnose the radiation poisoning while he was still alive.
@@dougaltolan3017 under normal circumstances and with therapeutic doses of radiation the side effects would be limited to sunburn like skin irritation and more rarely inflammation of bystander organs involved in the target volume (radiocystitis, radiorectitis, radiopmeumonitis etc.). So normally, acute radiation sickness is something that you would never see a a result of radiotherapy. The exception being the Therac-25 incident which caused several deaths due to faulty settings on a therapeutic linear accelerator. I believe plainly difficult made an excellent documentary on this if you're interested. In any case, in routine clinical practice, ARS is something that the majority of healthcare workers will never ever be confronted with. Unless Vlad throws a temper tantrum and pushes the red button in which case we're all screwed.
Sometimes I worry about myself. Sees new Plainly Difficult video: "Oh boy, time to learn about another horrible accident or radiological poisoning event!"
Same here. I feel weird about looking forward to this type thing. But personally it is the science that fascinating to me. Plus it keeps me in check. Reminds me things could definitely be worse in like.
I like to think that I will save one persons life in my lifetime because I immediately identify what they are dying of just because I'm a disaster nerd.
Your channel is the perfect mix of the science and facts, while still keeping things easy-to-follow. With a dose of good humour to keep things lighter of course 😉
Science deals in facts as we know them. Saying it's a perfect mix of science and facts is kind of silly. Yeah, theories leave it open ended because there's always the possibility that more data becomes available to improve or even change the theory altogether but the end result of science is fact. 👍
@@TheNuckinFoob I agree, but wasn’t using facts in that way. I was referring to facts as truth about events (what happened and when based on testimony of individuals and reports.)
I love the radiation content I dunno why but I just find it so interesting and you do such a good job of explaining it so even normal people like my self can understand it thanks for all your hard work plainly difficult
Ooh! I was hoping you'd get to this one. The poor bastard. Tho rare, more radiological awareness needs to be drilled into doctor's heads, and you've got a library full of reasons as to why on this channel. Keep up the awesome content, John man
Should it though? The number of people who die of acute radiation syndrome in a given year can be counted on one hand. If anything, high-risk assassination targets should be taught to watch out for the symptoms and alert their care-providers.
I studied radiobiology and we actually studied his case. It is so sad how he died. His literal gastric lining died because of the polonium. Frankly holding it in a cup would not be able to harm you. It's radiation radius is max 2 cm so it only destroys if you touch it. (your skin is actually stops some of the rays and the radius drops down around 1cm when contact with skin but soft tissue doesn't have a protective layer like skin) That explains bloody stool and throwing up. 😮 So smart way to harm someone. The radiation can't harm the carrier and only the one who drinks it gets the harm. So scary. Thanks for the video. I never thought I'd see this guy again
I never heard of this one, as I was 10 years old at the time, but I'm hoping to see you cover the novichok nerve agent attack in Salsbury a few years ago
"Attack" With a nerve agent that affected an obese, elderly man, and his fit daughter the exact same time 6+ hours after exposure, which was apparently caused by both of them touching the same door knob, but some random person picked up the container that had held the alleged agent days later and died instantly.
803 KeV gamma emission from Polonium-210 is extremely rare, only 0.001% of decays emits a gamma photon. This gamma photon can't be readily detected unless the levels of Polonium-210 are enormous.
Who dunnit then? And before you answer ,it most certainly was not Putin , as the lying Brith press and government would have us all believe ? Because Putin has got far more important things to do? Than send men to poison the guy ,? RUSKIE PHOBIA YET AGAIN , YAWN !
@SupersuMC Speaking of which, have You seen the damage area that Tsar Bomb would have created if it was actually dropped ?? People talk about city killer bombs, or country killer bombs. No no no, this is a fucking CONTINENT Killer. This 1 bomb could take out pretty much all of Europe and then some. The west doesn't have anything like that, yet.
Polonium-210 is such a fascinating isotope, and to use it in an assassination is the least subtle Russian ploy imaginable. I'm wondering just how crapped up the Russian side was - impossible to tell now with such a short half life isotope but fuckin hell...
Least subtle is what they were aiming for - make a traitor die a really horrible death to deter others. These days they tend to fall out of windows or shoot themselves.
Having watched your orphaned sources videos, I find it fascinating that a hospital in Kazakhstan or somewhere picks up on radiation sickness in some random member of the public in two or three days, whereas when a known former FSB agent and seeker of political asylum turns up in a UK hospital after meeting other politically connected Russian citizens and then suddenly becoming dramatically ill- on the very anniversary of his being exiled from Russia- they scratch their heads for ages.
Short answer: "Radiation burns"; first erythema, then epilation and finally necrosis if the radiation dose is sufficient, are easy telltale signs of exposure to ionsing radiation. Almost every doctor in the world (should) know that, since they (should) study radiology and the effects of x-rays to the human body. However, in the case of Mr. Litvinienko, there was no classic telltale sign of that to his externals, but they recognized the internal signs, such as bone marrow supression, vomiting, diarrhea, blood status signs, and yes, one external sign, he finally lost his hair, (epilation), but that mighty be chemically related. They suspected thallium poisoning and administered preussian blue, but tests for thallium came back negative. They did suspect radiation overdose, but GM-tube tests also came back negative since the 803 keV gamma photon only has a yield of 1/100000 and even though he ingested a humongous amount, the GM-tube did not detect those gamma photons. Analysis of urine samples with NaI (?)-or HPGe(?)detectors did however easily see the 803 keV gammas, since they have much greater efficiency, better geometry, uses lead-/copper shielding and make use of exceptionally longer counting times, than hand held GM-tubes.
This story is so gruesome and shows how much (nothing at all) Lugovoy’s and Kovtun’s boss care about human life. Mr P has claimed that he has no mercy for traitors but in most people’s eyes Litvinenko was a true patriot fighting for rightness, until he was stopped by the head of the KGB, a mister V V Putin. May we never forget this story.
@@SofaKingShit The ex-president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, was arrested when he was tricked to return to his home country and is now slowly and surely poisened by the pro-Russian govt.
Shot in her apartment block on his 54th birthday ( journalist Anna Politkovskaya) , opposition leader in prison after trying to kill him with poison in his underpants ( Alexei Navalny) another opponent shot (Boris Nemtsov) and Vladimir Kara-Murza, poisoned twice, not to mention all of the falls from high rise windows.
@@sands7779 Also bombing apartment buildings and blaming it on Tsetshens to justify invasion of defacto independent Tshetsnia. Was it a Russian mayor that announced the destruction of one of the buildings....3 days before it happened. And then people said they saw FSB agents roaming around the desttoyed buildings before the attacks. Hundreds of ordinary Russians were killed.
Glad to see you are back to your original style of narration, without those pauses and segment title reads that that other disaster youtubers are overusing.
Another piece of information about this assassination is the poison is likely the most expensive poison ever used, at an estimated cost of $42 Trillion dollars per kilogram. Even a few grains would be potentially $1 million or more.
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 Which point out to who berezovski had business dealings with prior his well timed run to UK... The supposed dose used to poison L is worth few million dollars and this story is as believable as the Novichok 007 "mastery" haha. How come the Russians are getting those guys, then sue them, then put them in prison for years {the Novichok guy}, then exchange them when they are deemed harmless and only after they reach England the Russians are like " Oh, shoot, lets waste few millon dollars of very specific and traceable substance to poison this nobody that we dont even bother to arrest for years in Russia"...Common now...
this is one of my earliest big news memories, i was ten at the time that image of him in the hospital bed was absolutely everywhere at the time and it's permanently seared into my brain
Yeah, it's not like doing this attack and chucking some nerve gas at the UK is going to piss them off and make them send something like say, anti-tank missiles to the first guy you pick a fight with. 😆
I have a geiger counter that can detect Po-210. Amusingly enough, it's Russian made (Radiascan 701a). It has a pancake probe that allows it to detect alpha. Geiger counters that use a traditional tube cannot detect alpha.
I don't remember it being on the news cos I was too young, but I did properly hear about it around a decade afterwards. One of my science teachers showed us the video of the guy just before he died and then explain the effects of the poison, and what the dangers of different types radiation emitters can be.
Scary. Like something out of a spy movie, some waitstaff in the bar that no one had seen before dumping whatever into the teapot and delivering it to the table, then leaving and no one saw them again…a way to do that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Plus everyone else who was exposed just being nearby! That’s the truly scary bit!!
Being nearby would hardly expose you at all-Alpha does not travel through the air well-the air actually attenuates Alpha quite well, assuming a bit of distance-even 6 inches of air will virtually eliminate the risk-also, since it can't penetrate the layer of dead skin cells that cover the human body, just exposure is not really much of a risk anyway. Alpha IS very dangerous INSIDE the body however. So not exposure, but internal contamination would be dangerous. This WAS noted in the video.
I doubt it was some waitstaff that no one had seen before. But the truly surpising thing is that it didn't kill anyone else, which suggests that the other two at least knew not to drink the tea, or just didn't drink tea.
Alpha emitters are hugely dangerous, taken internally. You cover that quite nicely. But do not also discount the heavy metal poisoning aspect; heavy metals such as plutonium or arsenic can cause lethal intoxication in quite small concentrations.
@@BavarianM yes, it is, but at a low specific activity in its most common isotope. The value of plutonium in fission reactions lies in its very large mass defect when split.
In my thirties I worked in a research laboratory conducting investigations into antineoplastic drug development. Of course we used tracers (tritiated thymadine) to make radioautographics. I had to account for every Curie of material, it would not have taken much Po210 because it is a tremendously powerful, once ingested the poor man had no chance. 13:42
What madness is this? I have become disconnected from my sense of date and time? If this is Saturday what happened to the last three days? Lol, jk's actually quite a pleasant surprise thanks for the video. Your content is among the best on TH-cam!
The big question still remains: Why go through all the trouble (logistical, technical, forensic) of using radioactive poisoning to get rid of someone, when there are far quicker, easier and less-implicating ways to do it?
Because it's a political flex, a pointed lesson to "the enemies of Russia". That they can be killed,and that Russian will use any means to do so. Typical Putin Thug politics.
Man, imagine being that regular joe police officer, just doing your shift, and suddenly you’re being confronted by a KGB guy who wants asylum. Pretty sure they don’t train you for that. Hell of a story to bring home to dinner, though.
10:55 "one of the pots at the bar showed considerable contamination". There has to have been collateral victims. It's hard to believe that the same tea pot had only been used with the intended victim. There may have been dozens of people contaminated.
Plainly, that was a great rundown of Litvinenko's murder. It was a message. We will get you if you run your mouth about us. A hell of an awful way to die.
Tony Bourdain made the funniest "They gave me the Litvinenko treatment" line, I just can't member which episode of No Reservations it was... maybe Romania.
In 1973, I had a class with Nick Khokhlov, who was poisoned in 1956 (?) with what he thought was radio Thallium. Only much later I found the narrative in Wikipedia. This earlier event would be worth a PD episode.
Can you please cover japan’s *Water Purification Department Unit 731* ? And the work of Ken Albiek (head covert bioweaponeer who defected to the US). Just those two things will give us content for the rest of our lives
I'm loving these radiation stories, but it scares the shit out of me how easily they administer it & how they have no thought for innocent people that may get caught up in it. At the moment we have the made for TV movie about Litvinenko. I'm going to watch it tomorrow/today
What suprises me is that no other people were contaminated by the teas pot and assosiated cutlery, which were likely still in use in the cafiteria over the next few days until taken away for disposal.
You know what? Its good that eu banned planes from russia to come to eu airspace Why? Well rusian agents can put weapons in theyr luggage at russian airport because they are gov agents they wont be asked at security,and when you leave the plane you do not get searched... but if russian agents are forced to go to a non rusian airport to fly in eu they will be searched at secirity before boarding,so overal its a good anti terorism policity to ban russian air lines from entering eu
Finally, a video where people understand the dangers of radioactive materials. Unfortunately, it's a video where people understand the dangers of radioactive materials.
There's a very insightful interview with his widow on TH-cam, on the LADbible channel (I'm told they used to make mostly cringey stuff, but now they make some amazing interview content, seriously top notch with fascinating individuals and then combinations of them discussing their lives together!) I'm still absolutely going to watch plainly's vid on it of course, just needed to comment this immediately upon finding this vid.
There was an amazing play about this in The Old Vic called ‘A Very Expensive Poison’ which had Reece Sheersmith playing Vladimir Putin. Strongly recommend if they ever do another run of it
@@PlainlyDifficult Are you aware that false copyright claims are, legally speaking, fraud? It's quite possible to fight it if the claimant is in the UK or has legal treaties with the UK (such as the US). Easiest method is to turn it into a moneyclaim for damages. They'll ignore it, get a default judgement, transfer it to High Court for enforcement for 60 quid, watch the fireworks.
As everything in russia, “anti-terrorist division” and “prevention of organized crimes division” means “central terrorist committee” and “organized crimes division” accordingly.
Poor guy, becoming aware of and then a spokesperson against the atrocities country you served couldn't have been easy, especially because he knew very well how vengeful the USSR could be. I hope he won't just be remembered as a victim but also as a supporter of the free world.
Two atoms were watching television. One atom says, “I think I just lost an electron.” The other atom asked, “Are you sure?” The first atom answered, “I’m positive.”
Russia has been perpetrating terrorism all over. 2012-2015 they were committing bombings in Bulgaria to try to get rid of privately owned stocks of 152 mm artillery ammo that Putin knew would end up in Ukraine once he invaded. And Bulgaria basically just tolerated it. First arrest of Russian terrorists was in 2021.
*Correction* I stupidly said plutonium instead of polonium! I will write 1000 lines as a punishment
@Doug Kenney You're just too slow
That is an extremely appropriate renaming. I hereby move that Polonium 210 be renamed putinium (no capitalization).
@@jasonhaman4670 I'm surrounded here, aren't I
'I'm ... I'm I?'*
Back to the future :)
Man I love the radiation themed stuff plainly difficult does. I could watch all of them without skipping. The videos are awesome, keep it up!
Thank you!
It's not real proof of this story, it's only speculations
@@이주영-h5j9n Pro Putin Troll are you ? I sadly encountered one on another channel. Guess its a change from MAGA trolls...oh wait, different sh#t, same smell.
I agree, the radiation/nuclear ones are the best. I wish they could do a video about the Sellafield site in the UK, and the UK's approach to nuclear reprocessing. I've seen the Windscale fire one, but there are plenty of others to feature.
Another one could be the Dounreay site, and the various mishaps that occurred there.
Agreed. There's something about the writing and the delivery that perfectly captures the weird haunting place radiation events occupy in my mind. It's this weird unseen terror that breaks you down on the most fundamental level and the effects are unpredictable and often random. It's alien and antithetical to the natural human condition, and Plainly Difficult delivers that in spades.
Radiation poisonings and nerve agents are probably among the scariest threats for me. Most other types of threats can either be identified and mitigated before they are too much of a risk or can be planned around and dealt with. Unless you live life in perpetual fear and test *everything* and come into contact with the fewest things possible it's extremely hard to do anything about either of those threats and they are extremely and *rapidly* lethal with very little you can do about it after the fact.
The only 'saving grace' I suppose is that they are somewhat difficult to acquire and come across, and don't usually occur in nature, particularly in the case of the more scary nerve agents
Same here those are some of the scariest things. Another is if someone can weponize prions that's a cruel way to go and untreatable. These sort of fears grip me because I work in the security field as a bodyguard in south Korea for kpop idols. We had a scare like this a long time ago, a angry fan was very upset with the members and decided to poison this kid yunho, they disguised themselves as staff and gave him a cup of orange juice laced with cyanoacrylate= super glue. Luckily it didn't work out and didn't cause much harm as it was caught very early on. He was quickly wisked away from the event and to the hospital and everything was fine. But yes stuff like radiation poisoning is a big scare for me. Luckily these types of fans are rare and don't possess the will nor the knowledge to do this type of shit
Just don't share that pic of Putin as a gay clown, or the one of Putin being ridden by a donkey by Vladimir Zelensky, or be a journalist critical of Little Vladdie's no dick energy and you'll be safe from being assassinated via radioactive/nerve agents. You might suffer a tragic unexpected fall out of a window after shooting yourself in the back of the head tho.
It’s nightmarish how much people underestimate bioweaponeering since it doesn’t look at near as a big boom. Ken Albiek’s book Biohazard after he defected to the US has stuck with me to this day. Especially Japan’s Water Purification Unit 731. And how they were just 2 weeks away from dropping billions of bioengineered plagued flea canisters on San Diego before Nagasaki and Hiroshima
@@skivvy3565 They were never "close" to dropping Flea's on the U.S.; as they didn't have the means to get across the ocean as we had SANK most of it's Navy by the end of 1943, beginning of '44. Also, Unit 731 was always known/listed as being a Bio-Weapons research department for the IJA.
@@skivvy3565 yes most people do. but trust me us in the security services keep a close eye on this stuff. even the kpop agency that employees us has a team dedicated to watching for threats like this. Funnily enough it benefits national security as well as they can always refer info to the police and other agencies. Because believe it or not the federal and local law enforcement arent always the first people to come in contact with something or be the first warning that something is up.
As a radiation safety officer myself , this is right up my alley ☢️ cheers, thanks for the great content!!
Thank you!
How much does a radiation safety officer make
@@bigsiebuzz1728 From what I understand, about 20mSv a year on average.
Oh, wait, that's how much they get.
@@ConstantlyDamagedthat’s funny af
Surely radiation safety is an oxymoron...
My father has a degree in nuclear engineering. He worked in the 80s during the cold war on a nuclear submarine doing multiple patrols. In the 90s, after I was born, I remember him working at a nuclear plant in New Jersey.
There had been a few incidents there, but there was one he told me about. Somehow him and another plant worker fully in gear had contamination spilled on their clothing. When they went into the room to get undressed and go through the sensors, the alarms started blaring. They looked at each other and said "well this is bad". They quickly took him, and the other worker to a decontamination room, showered him multiple times, and burned all his clothing.
Luckily, he didn't breathe anything in, and after a few days was free to come home. He's still alive, still working in the nuclear field, and about to retire.
Even radiation knows not to mess with your father. He sounds like a hell of a man
Tbh, burning contamated clothes sound like a good way of spreading contaminated ash al over the place
Oyster creek it’s right by me they had tons of incidents until it closed, first functional nuclear power plant in the us
@CapHunterX they probably didn't burn it in an open area. Most likely an enclosed chamber or something
Where in nj?
I knew there was some contamination at places he was at, but had no idea the extent of contamination all over London as well as on the airlines themselves. Incredibly lucky that nobody else seems to have suffered a similar fate from this contamination.
Whoever planned the assassination thought it well
Alpha emitters can't travel through your skin so you need to inhale or ingest it (or get it into a cut) for it to be dangerous. That is why it is so effective as a poison. The others most at risk would be anyone that drank from that teapot, it would be interesting to know how many they managed to trace. Although, if it was well washed out there would be minimal amounts left.
I know, it's disgusting that Putin got away with this radiological terrorist attack.
Well, he said it has to be ingested. The skin is probably good enough protection.
Lucky the tea pot was taken away and thoroughly washed up
The recklessnesss of the agents, who brought the substance on a commercial airplane and then just poured it down the drain is probably just as scary as the murder itself.
Murderers don't really value anyone's life. So they really don't care about a secondary impact as long as it gets the job done.
They were normal thieves in Postsovietrussia. They´ve stolen something truely valuable to deal with it, and Litvinienko was somehow involved.
@@theodorTugendreich That isn't what the investigation and report stated - the two others were known KGB operatives, one of whom later ended up in the Duma. Rather it was a deliberate assassination and the Russian authorities refused to cooperate at every level. If they were truly "normal thieves" then the authorities would be very active as they wouldn't like people running around uncontrolled with radioactive isotopes.
makes me think, that probably effect someones health down the line and they will never know why.
@@DJB10T1C Yea I would hate to be the maintenance guy at the hotels they dumped the stuff at..
I doubt they pulled out all the plumbing fixtures and drainpipes.
I would not be surprised if that stuff hung arround for a while.
Likewise I would not want to be the next customer to get served from that teapot.
So cool of you to rework this so it could be published, and as a bonus video no less! I've read about this incident but didn't realize the enormous amount of contamination it caused.
This and the umbrella poisoning of Georgi Markov have fascinated me
Same. The KGB/FSB have the wildest methods for successful assassinations around. (For wild UNsuccessful assassination methods, check out the CIA's history with Castro. 🤣)
Or Sergei Skripal…
Definitely feels to me like this is a particular poison that an assassin would only use when the goal is to make an example of someone to scare others.
As a crime and diplomatic transgression, this was definitely up there with the all time worst cases in the sense that it was so blatant, kind of bungled and still to this day a great injustice.
Forget crime, it's a terrorist strike using radioactive weapons.
It has the smell of Putin all over it. That man is vicious and find joy in tormenting people. The cruelty is the message.
@@nvelsen1975 Its still a crime, just the state sponsored terrorism kind of crime
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 Hopefully he won't be around for too much longer, life's hard enough without people adding that kind of behaviour
@@krissteel4074 Hopefully. The irony is, all history is gonna remember him for is being Putin the Not So Great. He's so deluded in his megalomania he actually thinks he's doing great things....
While I don't fault first responders or even the first couple of specialists for not realizing he'd suffered radiation poisoning, the seeming lack of urgency by healthcare professionals in this case is deeply troubling to me.
Do you have any idea how totally out of this world extraordinary unbelievable such a case would be to any doctor except maybe one who works for intelligence agencies or nuclear regulators? As an MD I can tell you that this would be the very last thing in my differential diagnosis if I was confronted with a similar case. I frankly find it astonishing that they were even able to diagnose the radiation poisoning while he was still alive.
You watch too much House M.D. lol
@@toonieven How close are the symptoms to effects of radio therapy for cancer treatment?
@@dougaltolan3017 under normal circumstances and with therapeutic doses of radiation the side effects would be limited to sunburn like skin irritation and more rarely inflammation of bystander organs involved in the target volume (radiocystitis, radiorectitis, radiopmeumonitis etc.). So normally, acute radiation sickness is something that you would never see a a result of radiotherapy. The exception being the Therac-25 incident which caused several deaths due to faulty settings on a therapeutic linear accelerator. I believe plainly difficult made an excellent documentary on this if you're interested. In any case, in routine clinical practice, ARS is something that the majority of healthcare workers will never ever be confronted with. Unless Vlad throws a temper tantrum and pushes the red button in which case we're all screwed.
What do you expect them to do? In normal times if you hear hoof-bears you do not automatically think "zebras"....
What a horrible way to go. Shame no one ever faced consequences for this crime. An all too common outcome for government atrocities.
Sometimes I worry about myself. Sees new Plainly Difficult video: "Oh boy, time to learn about another horrible accident or radiological poisoning event!"
Same here. I feel weird about looking forward to this type thing. But personally it is the science that fascinating to me. Plus it keeps me in check. Reminds me things could definitely be worse in like.
Sorry, in life.
Don't forget the delectibly comedic patented Plainly Difficult drawings!
I like to think that I will save one persons life in my lifetime because I immediately identify what they are dying of just because I'm a disaster nerd.
Your channel is the perfect mix of the science and facts, while still keeping things easy-to-follow. With a dose of good humour to keep things lighter of course 😉
Even filming making a cup of tea... Plainly difficult goes the extra mile for us 😀☕
Science deals in facts as we know them. Saying it's a perfect mix of science and facts is kind of silly.
Yeah, theories leave it open ended because there's always the possibility that more data becomes available to improve or even change the theory altogether but the end result of science is fact. 👍
@@TheNuckinFoob Peer reviewed facts to be exact! That is the beauty of science.
@@TheNuckinFoob I agree, but wasn’t using facts in that way. I was referring to facts as truth about events (what happened and when based on testimony of individuals and reports.)
I love the radiation content I dunno why but I just find it so interesting and you do such a good job of explaining it so even normal people like my self can understand it thanks for all your hard work plainly difficult
Jesus christ, they went to such lengths just to silence this man. Absolutely horrifying.
Ooh! I was hoping you'd get to this one. The poor bastard. Tho rare, more radiological awareness needs to be drilled into doctor's heads, and you've got a library full of reasons as to why on this channel. Keep up the awesome content, John man
Should it though? The number of people who die of acute radiation syndrome in a given year can be counted on one hand. If anything, high-risk assassination targets should be taught to watch out for the symptoms and alert their care-providers.
That's a good point. My thoughts were more on mass contamination events, but those are pretty rare as well
I studied radiobiology and we actually studied his case. It is so sad how he died. His literal gastric lining died because of the polonium.
Frankly holding it in a cup would not be able to harm you. It's radiation radius is max 2 cm so it only destroys if you touch it. (your skin is actually stops some of the rays and the radius drops down around 1cm when contact with skin but soft tissue doesn't have a protective layer like skin) That explains bloody stool and throwing up. 😮 So smart way to harm someone. The radiation can't harm the carrier and only the one who drinks it gets the harm. So scary. Thanks for the video. I never thought I'd see this guy again
I never heard of this one, as I was 10 years old at the time, but I'm hoping to see you cover the novichok nerve agent attack in Salsbury a few years ago
Thanks for the suggestion
Biggest joke of a story ever, none of it even makes sense. I'd love for anyone to try and make what happened seem plausible
@@Jabarri74 +15 рублей
"Attack" With a nerve agent that affected an obese, elderly man, and his fit daughter the exact same time 6+ hours after exposure, which was apparently caused by both of them touching the same door knob, but some random person picked up the container that had held the alleged agent days later and died instantly.
@@PlainlyDifficult I was going to suggest this too!
803 KeV gamma emission from Polonium-210 is extremely rare, only 0.001% of decays emits a gamma photon. This gamma photon can't be readily detected unless the levels of Polonium-210 are enormous.
Great video idea! Such a timely & crazy story.
It really is!!
Thank you Mr Plainly Difficult I really enjoy these kinda narrations. As always looking forward to the next
I remember seeing this man, dying. Knowing he was. And knowing who did it. So cruel and very sad. God bless his loved ones
Who dunnit then? And before you answer ,it most certainly was not Putin , as the lying Brith press and government would have us all believe ? Because Putin has got far more important things to do? Than send men to poison the guy ,? RUSKIE PHOBIA YET AGAIN , YAWN !
God obviously did not bless him though.
I love sipping a cup of coffee on a saturday morning and watching the latest PD episode.....
SHIT! I GOTTA GET TO WORK!!!!!
I was talking about this with my mother yesterday, great to have more info on this. Keep up the good work, and special thanks for using a CC license!
PLAINLY BONUS VIDEO? HOORAY!
Have I entered a time warp? I thought it was Wednesday.
It is Wednesday!!
LOL so they just side-poisoned possibly dozens of others. Very efficient, FSB.
They don't give a shit about the collateral amyways.
@@Darca1n These are the guys that designed the Tsar Bomba to have a yield of 100,000 megatons of TNT before saner heads prevailed, after all.
🇷🇺V'Russians🇷🇺
@SupersuMC
Speaking of which, have You seen the damage area that Tsar Bomb would have created if it was actually dropped ??
People talk about city killer bombs, or country killer bombs.
No no no, this is a fucking CONTINENT Killer.
This 1 bomb could take out pretty much all of Europe and then some.
The west doesn't have anything like that, yet.
Polonium-210 is such a fascinating isotope, and to use it in an assassination is the least subtle Russian ploy imaginable. I'm wondering just how crapped up the Russian side was - impossible to tell now with such a short half life isotope but fuckin hell...
Least subtle is what they were aiming for - make a traitor die a really horrible death to deter others. These days they tend to fall out of windows or shoot themselves.
Funny. It should be Russian patriots, not expatriates, who get the Polonium treatment
A new PD... On a Wednesday? Perfect timing for lunchtime viewing :)
Bon appetite
@@PlainlyDifficult Just as I'm making a nice cup of tea!
@@neuralmute RIP...
Having watched your orphaned sources videos, I find it fascinating that a hospital in Kazakhstan or somewhere picks up on radiation sickness in some random member of the public in two or three days, whereas when a known former FSB agent and seeker of political asylum turns up in a UK hospital after meeting other politically connected Russian citizens and then suddenly becoming dramatically ill- on the very anniversary of his being exiled from Russia- they scratch their heads for ages.
Short answer: "Radiation burns"; first erythema, then epilation and finally necrosis if the radiation dose is sufficient, are easy telltale signs of exposure to ionsing radiation. Almost every doctor in the world (should) know that, since they (should) study radiology and the effects of x-rays to the human body.
However, in the case of Mr. Litvinienko, there was no classic telltale sign of that to his externals, but they recognized the internal signs, such as bone marrow supression, vomiting, diarrhea, blood status signs, and yes, one external sign, he finally lost his hair, (epilation), but that mighty be chemically related.
They suspected thallium poisoning and administered preussian blue, but tests for thallium came back negative.
They did suspect radiation overdose, but GM-tube tests also came back negative since the 803 keV gamma photon only has a yield of 1/100000 and even though he ingested a humongous amount, the GM-tube did not detect those gamma photons.
Analysis of urine samples with NaI (?)-or HPGe(?)detectors did however easily see the 803 keV gammas, since they have much greater efficiency, better geometry, uses lead-/copper shielding and make use of exceptionally longer counting times, than hand held GM-tubes.
Did the hospital know he was a former agent and political asylum person when he was admitted to hospital?
@janetpendlebury6808 I would seriously doubt it. They were simply looking at the man in front of them.
This story is so gruesome and shows how much (nothing at all) Lugovoy’s and Kovtun’s boss care about human life. Mr P has claimed that he has no mercy for traitors but in most people’s eyes Litvinenko was a true patriot fighting for rightness, until he was stopped by the head of the KGB, a mister V V Putin.
May we never forget this story.
Brilliant narrative, I can almost see Vlad stroking a large white cat in his lair as he laughs maniacally.
@@SofaKingShit The ex-president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, was arrested when he was tricked to return to his home country and is now slowly and surely poisened by the pro-Russian govt.
Shot in her apartment block on his 54th birthday ( journalist Anna Politkovskaya) , opposition leader in prison after trying to kill him with poison in his underpants ( Alexei Navalny) another opponent shot (Boris Nemtsov) and Vladimir Kara-Murza, poisoned twice, not to mention all of the falls from high rise windows.
@@sands7779 Now the ex-president of Georgia is slowly being poisoned in a poison in Georgia.
@@sands7779 Also bombing apartment buildings and blaming it on Tsetshens to justify invasion of defacto independent Tshetsnia. Was it a Russian mayor that announced the destruction of one of the buildings....3 days before it happened. And then people said they saw FSB agents roaming around the desttoyed buildings before the attacks. Hundreds of ordinary Russians were killed.
Man every single video you make about radiation is so so good. Banger every time. Keep it up :)
Brilliant, just what I need, something decent to watch
Thank you!
Glad to see you are back to your original style of narration, without those pauses and segment title reads that that other disaster youtubers are overusing.
Another piece of information about this assassination is the poison is likely the most expensive poison ever used, at an estimated cost of $42 Trillion dollars per kilogram. Even a few grains would be potentially $1 million or more.
Which point to a state agent, because that kind of money is absolutely nothing for a state like Russia.
Glad tax payer money in Russia is being used to benefit the citizens...
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 for now at least...
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 Which point out to who berezovski had business dealings with prior his well timed run to UK... The supposed dose used to poison L is worth few million dollars and this story is as believable as the Novichok 007 "mastery" haha. How come the Russians are getting those guys, then sue them, then put them in prison for years {the Novichok guy}, then exchange them when they are deemed harmless and only after they reach England the Russians are like " Oh, shoot, lets waste few millon dollars of very specific and traceable substance to poison this nobody that we dont even bother to arrest for years in Russia"...Common now...
Your maths are delusional you count like a toddler
this is one of my earliest big news memories, i was ten at the time
that image of him in the hospital bed was absolutely everywhere at the time and it's permanently seared into my brain
Thanks for this. Same as the brutal murder of Dawn Sturgess. Only one tyrant. May them both RIP.
Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley
I apologise Dawn.
I’ve heard this story from other channels but for John I will gladly listen and watch!
Doctors in London: "Mr. Litvinenko, you've been poisoned with Polonium."
Litvinenko: "...balls."
I always wanted to know more about this. Thank you!
Thank you
Thank you for your hard work on these very informative videos
There's a restaurant in Sheffield called Polonium. This incident has done little for them.
I used to eat POLOs as a kid.
Cyberpunk 2077 contains a reference to such illiterate naming of eateries, containing a food stand called Salmonella.
That aged like milk!
This was clearly intended to be a display of power rather than a covert assassination
Yeah, it's not like doing this attack and chucking some nerve gas at the UK is going to piss them off and make them send something like say, anti-tank missiles to the first guy you pick a fight with. 😆
Absolutely. The cruelty is a message. Coming from someone like Putin that seems to take pride in breaking every convention of the Nuremburg trials.
Thank you for covering this!!
I have a geiger counter that can detect Po-210. Amusingly enough, it's Russian made (Radiascan 701a). It has a pancake probe that allows it to detect alpha. Geiger counters that use a traditional tube cannot detect alpha.
I don't remember it being on the news cos I was too young, but I did properly hear about it around a decade afterwards. One of my science teachers showed us the video of the guy just before he died and then explain the effects of the poison, and what the dangers of different types radiation emitters can be.
Scary. Like something out of a spy movie, some waitstaff in the bar that no one had seen before dumping whatever into the teapot and delivering it to the table, then leaving and no one saw them again…a way to do that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Plus everyone else who was exposed just being nearby! That’s the truly scary bit!!
Being nearby would hardly expose you at all-Alpha does not travel through the air well-the air actually attenuates Alpha quite well, assuming a bit of distance-even 6 inches of air will virtually eliminate the risk-also, since it can't penetrate the layer of dead skin cells that cover the human body, just exposure is not really much of a risk anyway.
Alpha IS very dangerous INSIDE the body however.
So not exposure, but internal contamination would be dangerous.
This WAS noted in the video.
I doubt it was some waitstaff that no one had seen before. But the truly surpising thing is that it didn't kill anyone else, which suggests that the other two at least knew not to drink the tea, or just didn't drink tea.
Or added the polonium after pouring their cups. Would have been suspicious if they didn't drink their tea.
Yes, I've been waiting for this topic!
Alpha emitters are hugely dangerous, taken internally. You cover that quite nicely. But do not also discount the heavy metal poisoning aspect; heavy metals such as plutonium or arsenic can cause lethal intoxication in quite small concentrations.
Plutonium is radioactive
@@BavarianM yes, it is, but at a low specific activity in its most common isotope. The value of plutonium in fission reactions lies in its very large mass defect when split.
i find gamma to be worse since it can pass through your body unlike alpha which would bounce of your skin and only affect your outer layer.
@@DJB10T1C Alpha particles are more ionising. Gamma can travel right through.
In my thirties I worked in a research laboratory conducting investigations into antineoplastic drug development. Of course we used tracers (tritiated thymadine) to make radioautographics. I had to account for every Curie of material, it would not have taken much Po210 because it is a tremendously powerful, once ingested the poor man had no chance. 13:42
What madness is this? I have become disconnected from my sense of date and time? If this is Saturday what happened to the last three days?
Lol, jk's actually quite a pleasant surprise thanks for the video. Your content is among the best on TH-cam!
Thank you!
Just in time again, thank you John!
Aw hell yeah new Plainly Difficult video
It would also be interesting to talk about the death of Yasir Arafat. There is a theory that he was assassinated by the Mossad using Polonium 210 too.
Good morning John, thanks for the video as I listen and prep for work.
Have a wonderful day!
And you thank you!
I always look forward to your videos. Thank you very much.
The big question still remains:
Why go through all the trouble (logistical, technical, forensic) of using radioactive poisoning to get rid of someone, when there are far quicker, easier and less-implicating ways to do it?
Because it's a political flex, a pointed lesson to "the enemies of Russia". That they can be killed,and that Russian will use any means to do so.
Typical Putin Thug politics.
This feels barbaric.
So it is probably to set an example to others as to say
"We cannot be touched, but we can go after you"
Man, imagine being that regular joe police officer, just doing your shift, and suddenly you’re being confronted by a KGB guy who wants asylum. Pretty sure they don’t train you for that.
Hell of a story to bring home to dinner, though.
That's also the main thing that stuck out to me in this story lmao. I would be stunned
10:55 "one of the pots at the bar showed considerable contamination". There has to have been collateral victims. It's hard to believe that the same tea pot had only been used with the intended victim. There may have been dozens of people contaminated.
Tell them about the value of human lives :D
Plainly, that was a great rundown of Litvinenko's murder. It was a message. We will get you if you run your mouth about us. A hell of an awful way to die.
Science, History and True Crime? Yes please!
Any time!!
My minds been blown. I had NEVER considered the possibility of a radiation murder before hearing this video.
Also they made a short series with David Tennant last year about this story, it’s truly heart breaking what they did to him.
I hadn't heard of this. As a Doctor Who fan, I must find this. Thanks!
I second jason
Tony Bourdain made the funniest "They gave me the Litvinenko treatment" line, I just can't member which episode of No Reservations it was... maybe Romania.
In 1973, I had a class with Nick Khokhlov, who was poisoned in 1956 (?) with what he thought was radio Thallium. Only much later I found the narrative in Wikipedia. This earlier event would be worth a PD episode.
Can you please cover japan’s *Water Purification Department Unit 731* ? And the work of Ken Albiek (head covert bioweaponeer who defected to the US). Just those two things will give us content for the rest of our lives
YES!
Thank you for putting the cue mark up to warn of incoming ads- it makes the cut away so much less jarring.
Oh man, I worry about everyone who had tea out of that pot after he was poisoned
Just as you said a mid week upload. 👍🏻🇬🇧
Hope you enjoyed it!
I'm loving these radiation stories, but it scares the shit out of me how easily they administer it & how they have no thought for innocent people that may get caught up in it. At the moment we have the made for TV movie about Litvinenko. I'm going to watch it tomorrow/today
They obviously thought about civilians getting hurt, they just don't give a flying fucking fuck about it.
@@subject8332That is sheer evil, one of its faces.
What suprises me is that no other people were contaminated by the teas pot and assosiated cutlery, which were likely still in use in the cafiteria over the next few days until taken away for disposal.
Goes back to the old, saying: “ Snitches get roentgens.”
Thanks for another awesome video!
Thank you
You know what? Its good that eu banned planes from russia to come to eu airspace
Why?
Well rusian agents can put weapons in theyr luggage at russian airport because they are gov agents they wont be asked at security,and when you leave the plane you do not get searched... but if russian agents are forced to go to a non rusian airport to fly in eu they will be searched at secirity before boarding,so overal its a good anti terorism policity to ban russian air lines from entering eu
This decision should have been made during the first day of war.
Finally, a video where people understand the dangers of radioactive materials.
Unfortunately, it's a video where people understand the dangers of radioactive materials.
Unfortunately, he was poisoned
There's a very insightful interview with his widow on TH-cam, on the LADbible channel (I'm told they used to make mostly cringey stuff, but now they make some amazing interview content, seriously top notch with fascinating individuals and then combinations of them discussing their lives together!)
I'm still absolutely going to watch plainly's vid on it of course, just needed to comment this immediately upon finding this vid.
Chilling stuff but really interesting video thanks.
Well, Salisbury has gotta be next i suppose🤫
Love the show man, My master of disaster🤙
Cheers from the Lowlands🇳🇱
so many comments already lol now to watch the upload and comment after
Unit 731 would be a good multi-part dark side of science series
Alpha radiation won't penetrate paper, so it would be hard to detect in the body. Plus, many cheap Geiger counters won't even detect it.
There was an amazing play about this in The Old Vic called ‘A Very Expensive Poison’ which had Reece Sheersmith playing Vladimir Putin.
Strongly recommend if they ever do another run of it
Probably inspired by Luke Harding's book of the same title about the poisoning. It is a very interesting read.
I swear you already did a video on him? A few years ago?
Did it get pulled?
Am I going crazy? 😆
Yes yes yes and yes :P It was taken down due to a copyright claim so I decided to re edit and up-load a modernised version!
@@PlainlyDifficult
Are you aware that false copyright claims are, legally speaking, fraud? It's quite possible to fight it if the claimant is in the UK or has legal treaties with the UK (such as the US).
Easiest method is to turn it into a moneyclaim for damages. They'll ignore it, get a default judgement, transfer it to High Court for enforcement for 60 quid, watch the fireworks.
Thank you and have a great week.
11:07 Plutonium 210?
The similarities to the CAI/ MI5 is amassing.
Wait... Is it Saturday already?
Not yet! There will be a regular video as well this sat!
@@PlainlyDifficult noice
Woohoo, new video. Goodbye work lol
:D😁
@@PlainlyDifficult Love your videos!!! Keep up the great work and thank you for all the free content!!
Thanks for the video
Our pleasure!
As everything in russia, “anti-terrorist division” and “prevention of organized crimes division” means “central terrorist committee” and “organized crimes division” accordingly.
An upload on a Wednesday? No complaints here. Cheers John !
At least it’s not using VX in an airport…
I don't want to know, but at the same time, I kind of want to... 😅
@@SupersuMC Look up NorthKorea Assisaasasasasasanation
Poor guy, becoming aware of and then a spokesperson against the atrocities country you served couldn't have been easy, especially because he knew very well how vengeful the USSR could be. I hope he won't just be remembered as a victim but also as a supporter of the free world.
Two atoms were watching television. One atom says, “I think I just lost an electron.”
The other atom asked, “Are you sure?” The first atom answered, “I’m positive.”
I think there was a detective who got poisoned, however he managed to help authorities find out who poisoned him before his death.
This, along with the use of novichok in Salisbury, should have at least triggered an Article 4 consultation of NATO.
Russia has been perpetrating terrorism all over. 2012-2015 they were committing bombings in Bulgaria to try to get rid of privately owned stocks of 152 mm artillery ammo that Putin knew would end up in Ukraine once he invaded.
And Bulgaria basically just tolerated it. First arrest of Russian terrorists was in 2021.
I appreciate you, thank you for making content.
This is exactly what Putin needs!
Thankyou! There's a new series with David tenet coming out about this!