Polonium subjects were chosen because experimenters wanted persons who had not been exposed to polonium either through work or accident. All subjects had incurable diseases. Excretion of polonium was followed, and an autopsy was conducted at that time on the deceased patient to determine which organs absorbed the polonium. Patients' ages ranged from 'early thirties' to 'early forties'. The experiments were described in Chapter 3 of Biological Studies with Polonium, Radium, and Plutonium, National Nuclear Energy Series, Volume VI-3, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1950. Not specified is the isotope under study, but at the time polonium-210 was the most readily available polonium
Polonium room temperature. Tetrahalides can be obtained by reacting polonium dioxide with HCl, HBr or HI. Other polonium compounds include potassium polonite as a polonite, polonate, acetate, bromate, carbonate, citrate, chromate, cyanide, formate, (II) and (IV) hydroxides, nitrate, selenate, selenite, monosulfide, sulfate, disulfate and sulfite. Oxides Hydrides Halides Polonium has 33 known isotopes, all of which are radioactive. They have atomic masses that range from 188 to 220 u. Po (half-life 138.376 days) is the most widely available and is made via neutron capture by natural bismuth. The longer-lived Po (half-life years, longest-lived of all polonium isotopes) and Po (half-life 2.9