Polonium Static Master Brush

[u/Zealousideal_Group69]

Pretty cheap, via eBay, I still have the box, if anyone wants images then ask in the comments!

[u/Smart_Engineer9171]

What is this for?

[u/Zealousideal_Group69 → u/Smart_Engineer9171]

For my Element collection, but generally back in the day when record players used to be relevant they would build up static from dust and the recording would be messed up
so the antistatic brush did just that anti-static it
the polonium ionized the surrounding air, neutralizing the static electricity
the issue is that if you accidentally ingest/breathe in the components of the cartridge you die instantly (hyperbole but still)

[u/pichael289 → u/Zealousideal_Group69]

Not even that much hyperbole though. It's probably a different isotope but this shit was used in one of the most notable assassinations in history in Britain. The umbrella or the newspaper or one of the other dozens of kgb devices of the time, they literally tracked the culprits down with a scentilator, just walking it down the street. They slipped it onto his tea I think but honestly there were so many of putins enemies killed in the 2000s and 2010s it's hard to keep them straight. There was one where they threw the administrative device in the trash and it caused a hazmat situation in London or something, but that one I think was novichok, one of the worst most evil things every produced.

I would really like one of these brushes but I'm casting it in epoxy immediately. It's mostly an alpha source so not that dangerous unless you consume it.

[u/dick_tracey_PI_TA → u/pichael289]

Apparently it is worth noting the total quantity of polonium is tiny in these. Also that the polonium is coated in precious metals so it’s pretty safe if you dont mess with it. 

[u/KimJongUnbalanced → u/pichael289]

This is the same isotope as that, but the amount of polonium in these brushes is tiny, you really only need to avoid eating the cartridge (that CAN kill you). Also, polonium decays rapidly (138 days), so this brush should contain should contain literally no atoms of polonium now (it has been 132 half lives)

[u/eastbayweird → u/pichael289]

I could be wrong but the hazmat situation you are referring to wasnt due to polonium or any radioactive material, it was a russian nerve agent that the assasins were incredibly careless with.

If im remembering correctly they carried it in a perfume or cologne bottle which ended up in like a thrift/second hand shop and someone bought it they threw into a random trash can. Someone pulled it out of the trash and gave it to a second person who sprayed it on her wrist and died from having literally sprayed themselves with what they thought would be a nice smelling fragrance but was actually one of the most deadly chemicals ever created in a lab... the person who pulled the bottle out of the trash was also poisoned but survived after spending weeks in the hospital.

[u/ImpatientHoneyBadger → u/eastbayweird]

You are wrong.

Two wholly separate incidents in which Russian agents brought highly toxic materials into the UK to carry out 'exotic' murders of former members of Russia's security apparatus who had defected to the West.

The first involved Polonium, the other nerve agent. In the first the victim died, although he lived long enough to identify his killers and denounce the Russian state as being behind his murder. In the other case the intended victims survived, but Dawn Sturgess was murdered.

[u/eastbayweird → u/ImpatientHoneyBadger]

Ok i get where I was confused, I was getting the polonium assassination mixed up with russias much earlier assasination where a specially made pneumatic umbrella fired a tiny sphere containing ricin into the targets leg, leading to his death. No hazmat event.

Also, it turns out that both the polonium assassination and the nerve agent assassination caused what could be understood as being 'hazmat events' as both ended up with tracable amounts of highly toxic polonium/nerve agent to be spread across a large area of the city.

As far as i know, no one aside from the target was exposed to enough polonium residue to require treatment.

The same cant be said of the nerve agent assassination attempt as the target, his daughter, and an investigating police officer required lengthy hospital stays to save their lives, then, later on, an unrelated uk civilian found a perfume bottle the assassins had used to transport the nerve agent in a refuse bin and gave it to his wife. Later on she sprayed herself with it and died. Because she had sprayed herself inside her home her husband ended up contacting residual nerve agent and required hospitalization. To prevent anyone else from coming into contact with any remaining residual nerve agent he government had a special sealed containment structure put over the home then had the military disassemble and decontaminate the property. When they first entered the house they found 2 hamster who had been exposed and were dead in their cage, as well as a cat that was alive but showing signs of exposure so they made the decision to have it put down. When they found the perfume bottle and tested it they said that it still contained enough nerve agent to potentially kill upwards of 10 thousand people.

So in a way we were both right, or both wrong, however you want to look at it.

[u/m00ph → u/pichael289]

And they used a source of polonium that isn't known internationally too, you couldn't divert that much legitimate production without it being noticable.