By Middle East correspondent Matt Brown, wires
Photo: Yasser Arafat's body was exhumed in 2012 so his remains could be tests amid claims he was murdered. (AFP: Abbas Momani, file photo)
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Map: Palestinian Territory, Occupied
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have died from radiation poisoning, tests carried out by Swiss scientists suggest.
The Al Jazeera television network commissioned the report as part of an investigation into Arafat's death.
The scientists found higher than expected levels of a radioactive element, polonium-210, in his pelvis and a rib.
"New toxicological and radio-toxicological investigations were performed, demonstrating unexpectedly high levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 activity in many of the analysed specimens," said the report by 10 experts at the Vaudois University Hospital Centre.
It added that polonium levels in "bones and soft tissues were up to 20 times larger" than hypothesised, firmly ruling out the possibility previously reported in some media that passive smoking had caused greater than normal polonium levels in Arafat's body.
The scientists say their tests "moderately support" the theory that Arafat was poisoned with polonium.
They also says their tests were limited by a lack of samples and the fact that eight years had passed since his death.
Samples have also been analysed by Russian and French scientists, but their results are yet to be released.
What is polonium?
- Polonium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898.
- It is a highly radioactive material rarely found outside military and scientific circles.
- Also known as Radium F, it is a rare but naturally occurring metalloid found in uranium ores that emits highly hazardous alpha, or positively charged, particles.
- The same radioactive substance was used to kill defecting Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
- Small doses of polonium-210 exist in the soil and atmosphere, and even in the human body, but in high doses it is highly toxic if ingested or inhaled.
- It is one of the rarest natural elements: in 10 grams of uranium there is a maximum of a billionth of a gram of polonium.
- The substance loses 50 per cent of its radioactivity every four months.
Arafat's widow, Suha Arafat, says the results from the Swiss lab tests show her husband was the victim of a political assassination.
"I don't know who did it, but it's terrible," she said.
Remains exhumed last year
Arafat was besieged by Israeli troops at his headquarters north of Jerusalem when he became seriously ill in late 2004, but Israel has long denied being responsible and Arafat had many enemies.
Some 60 samples were taken from his remains in November last year for a investigation into whether he was poisoned by polonium.
The samples were divided between the Swiss and Russian investigators and a French team carrying out a probe at the request of Arafat's widow.
Arafat fell ill in October 2004, displaying symptoms of acute gastroenteritis with diarrhoea and vomiting. At first Palestinian officials said he was suffering from influenza.
He was flown to Paris but fell into a coma shortly after his arrival at the Percy military hospital where he died on November 11, aged 75.
The official cause of death was a stroke but French doctors said at the time they were unable to determine the origin of his illness.
No autopsy was carried out at the time, at the request of his widow.
His remains were exhumed in November 2012 and samples taken, partly to investigate whether he had been poisoned - a suspicion that grew after the assassination of Russian ex-spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
Polonium one of the rarest natural elements
Photo: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat surrounded by doctors shortly before his death in 2004. (Hussein Hussein: Reuters)
In an October report, published by The Lancet, eight scientists working at the Institute of Radiation Physics and University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne confirmed they found traces of polonium in separate tests on clothing used by Arafat which they said "support the possibility" he was poisoned.
Polonium is a highly radioactive material rarely found outside military and scientific circles.
Small doses exist in the soil and atmosphere, and even in the human body, but in high doses it is highly toxic if ingested or inhaled, and can damage the body's tissues and organs.
It is one of the rarest natural elements - in 10 grams of uranium ore there is a maximum of a billionth of a gram of polonium.
Polonium-210 is the least rare of its 33 known isotopes.
The substance has been used industrially for its alpha radiation in research and medicine, and as a heating source for space components, but in those forms it is not conducive to easy poisoning.
ABC/AFP
