Here is what wiki has to say about [Polonium radiological toxicity][1]: > By mass, polonium-210 is around 250,000 times more toxic than > hydrogen cyanide (the LD50 for 210Po is less than 1 microgram for an > average adult (see below) compared with about 250 milligrams for > hydrogen cyanide[66]). The main hazard is its intense radioactivity > (as an alpha emitter), which makes it very difficult to handle safely. > Even in microgram amounts, handling 210Po is extremely dangerous, > requiring specialized equipment (a negative pressure alpha glove box > equipped with high performance filters), adequate monitoring, and > strict handling procedures to avoid any contamination. ... > > The median > lethal dose (LD50) for acute radiation exposure is generally about 4.5 > Sv.[71] The committed effective dose equivalent 210Po is 0.51 µSv/Bq > if ingested, and 2.5 µSv/Bq if inhaled.[72] So a fatal 4.5 Sv dose can > be caused by ingesting 8.8 MBq (240 µCi), about 50 nanograms (ng), or > inhaling 1.8 MBq (49 µCi), about 10 ng. One gram of 210Po could thus > in theory poison 20 million people of whom 10 million would die. The > actual toxicity of 210Po is lower than these estimates, because > radiation exposure that is spread out over several weeks (the > biological half-life of polonium in humans is 30 to 50 days[73]) is > somewhat less damaging than an instantaneous dose. It has been > estimated that a median lethal dose of 210Po is 15 megabecquerels > (0.41 mCi), or 0.089 micrograms, still an extremely small amount. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium#Biology_and_toxicity