November 23 | Alexander Litvinenko

August 30, 1962 - November 23, 2006: Age 44

Anyone who believed that Russia's social and political troubles might end with the collapse of the Soviet Union has been disillusioned many times over since 1990. The death of Alexander Litvinenko last year was particularly troubling. Litvinenko was a KGB officer who had been moved into a high position in their Military Counter Intelligence department. He, along with a number of peers, spoke out publicly against the corruption and dirty dealing in the department and in the Russian government, right up to the top, including links to organised crime. He was arrested, then released, and managed to escape the Soviet Union on a false passport, his wife and son travelling out legally through Turkey. They sought and received asylum and citizenship in the United Kingdom.

Litvinenko tried to publish a book in Russia outlining Putin's rise to power as a staged campaign that included fake bombings blamed on Chechnyan rebels being used as an excuse to bring military force into Chechnya. A common enemy, whether an external state or a terrorist group, has the effect of uniting people behind a perceived strong leader.

On November 1, 2006 Litvinenko met with some Russian businessmen, then later with an Italian KGB expert. Later that day he began to feel unwell, and by November 4 was admitted to hospital. By November 19 doctors confirmed that he had been poisoned with some kind of radioactive material, although at first they were unable to accurately identify what.

Meanwhile Litvinenko's condition deteriorated very rapidly. He knew, of course, that he had been poisoned, and spoke out very frankly to journalists about it. The photograph at right was taken less than three weeks after he fell ill, and just a few days before his death. His kidneys were damaged, he was vomiting almost constantly and had lost all his hair. His bone marrow was severely damaged and he had almost no white blood cells left. By November 20 the hospital confirmed that he was in ”serious but stable“ condition, under armed guard, was struggling to speak and had only a 50 percent chance of survival. His family was taken into protective custody.

Meanwhile a media storm was in process, with public accusations against the Russian government and matching denials. The Italian associate he met on November 1 announced that he had received threats on his life just before the meeting. The exact cause of the poisoning was still unknown. On November 22 Litvinenko suffered a heart attack during the night, and on November 23 he died.

By January 2007 British police had determined the exact poison (polonium-210, a highly unstable isotope) and knew a great deal about how it was brought in to the country and administered (in a cup of tea). In May 2007 they charged Andrei Lugovoi, one of the businessmen Litvinenko met with on November 1, with his murder. Lugovoi lives free in Russia and extradition requests have been denied.

The case is extremely complex but there are plenty of sources to read more about it. I will give the last word to Litvinenko himself, who issued a deathbed statement on the case.

I would like to thank many people. My doctors, nurses and hospital staff who are doing all they can for me, the British police who are pursuing my case with vigour and professionalism and are watching over me and my family. I would like to thank the British government for taking me under their care. I am honoured to be a British citizen.

I would like to thank the British public for their messages of support and for the interest they have shown in my plight.

I thank my wife Marina, who has stood by me. My love for her and our son knows no bounds.

But as I lie here I can distinctly hear the beating of wings of the angel of death. I may be able to give him the slip but I have to say my legs do not run as fast as I would like. I think, therefore, that this may be the time to say one or two things to the person responsible for my present condition.

You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed.

You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value.

You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilised men and women.

You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people.

Sources: Wikipedia, The Litvinenko Justice Foundation, Axis News, ABC News

November 13 | Karen Silkwood

February 19, 1946 - November 13, 1974: Age 28

Karen Silkwood worked for the Kerr-McGee corporation as a chemical technician. Kerr-McGee, although primarily involved with oil and gas, also made plutonium for nuclear fuel rods. As a member of the labor union Silkwood became concerned about safety procedures at the plant and testified at a hearing of the Atomic Energy Commission, alleging that safety standards were slipping as a result of production speedups.

On November 5, 1974, a routine test for plutonium contamination revealed 40 times the legal limit. She underwent decontamination, but the next day tested positive again, despite having only done paperwork that day. On November 7 she was found to be dangerously contaminated, and a team checked her home — only to find plutonium on various surfaces in her house. Kerr-McGee has since alleged that she contaminated herself in order to blacken the company's reputation, but the type of plutonium present in the contamination was not from the part of the plant Silkwood worked in.

Silkwood decided to go public with the story and contacted a New York Times reporter. She was headed for Oklahoma City to meet with this reporter with a stack of documents when her car left the road and rolled into a culvert. No documents were found in the car, but the police did find marijuana and some sedatives. Her blood revealed a high dose of Quaaludes, more than twice the recommended dose to induce drowsiness. Her death was ruled an accident.

Public suspicions forced an investigation of the Kerr-McGee plant, which was found to have numerous safety violations. Kerr-McGee closed its nuclear operations in 1975. The site was still being decontaminated 25 years later. Silkwood's family sued Kerr-McGee for damages. During the trial the corporation tried to paint Silkwood as a troublemaker who had contaminated herself to damage the company. The jury didn't buy it, and awarded the family $10 million in punitive damages. On appeal, the amount was reduced to a bizarre $5,000, but the Supreme Court restored the original verdict in 1984. The suit was going to retrial when the corporation settled out of court for $1.38 million with no admission of liability.

Sources: Wikipedia, The Karen Silkwood Story (Los Alamos report)

October 25 | Sadako Sasaki

January 7, 1943 - October 25, 1955: Age 12

Sadako Sasaki was only 2 years old when the Americans dropped an atom bomb on her home city of Hiroshima. It blew her right out of her house, which later burned in the fires, but her mother picked her up and started running away from the destruction. As they were running they were caught in the "black rain" that followed the explosion.

Sadako and her mother survived the explosion, and she grew up healthy. She was the fastest runner in her school and dreamed of becoming a phys ed teacher when, in late 1954 at the age of 11, she caught a cold and developed small lumps in her neck. By January purple spots had appeared on her leg, and in February she was diagnosed with leukemia, the "atom bomb disease". Her doctor said she had a year at most.

During that summer, the people of Nagoya sent 1,000 origami cranes to the hospital to cheer patients up. Inspired by the cranes, and the saying that anyone who folded 1,000 cranes would be granted a wish, Sadako started folding her own cranes. When she ran out of paper, she scrounged more from medicine wrappings and labels, and gift paper from other patients. By late October she had folded more than 1,300 paper cranes. She died on the morning of October 25, 1955. Her last words were about some food her family had persuaded her to eat: "It's good."

The young people of Japan were deeply affected by the story of the young girl who folded cranes. They raised enough money to create a monument for her, and for all the other children who had been killed by the bombs. A large monument was built in the Hiroshima Peace Park, where to this day children bring folded paper cranes as an offering. At the foot of the statue is a plaque which reads, "This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world."

Sources: Wikipedia, World Peace Project for Children, Hiroshima Virtual Museum

September 15 | Harry K. Daghlian, Jr.

1921 - September 15, 1945: Age 24

Harry Daghlian was a physicist working on the Manhatten Project at Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. On the evening of August 21, 1945, he was slowing adding tungsten to an apparatus containing a sphere of plutonium, using the audible clicks of a monitor to avoid adding them too quickly. When at one point he heard the clicks speed up, he pulled back his hand, but lost his grip on the brick, which fell into the center of the apparatus. Instinctively he knocked the brick away, avoiding a meltdown, but his hand was inside the blue glow of the plutonium and began to tingle. He dismantled the apparatus to something more stable and was driven to hospital.

Daghlian immediately experienced swelling and numbness, and within 90 minutes acute nausea set in. He vomited almost continually for a day, but after a couple of days of nausea and hiccups his appetite returned. Within 3 days blisters started to apear on his hands. Over the next two weeks these spread all over his body, inside and out. He died just over three weeks after the accident, in great pain.

A security guard who was in the same room about 12 feet away during the accident had no acute symptoms of radiation sickness, but his blood pressure went up and he felt a bit tired for a couple of days. He lived on in apparent good health, even having two children, however he died of leukemia at the age of 62, probably a long-term result of his exposure 33 years before.

Although the accident took place six days after Japan’s surrender, the activities at Los Alamos were still a deep secret, so it was reported he had died of “chemical burns”.

Sources, America’s First Peacetime Atom Bomb Fatality, Wikipedia.