That seems to be the case if the findings of a Swiss laboratory are correct:
New Scientist also reports on the story:
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...010/Yasser-Arafat-poisoned-with-Polonium.htmlTests performed by a laboratory in Switzerland found significant traces of Polonium-210 on the late Palestinian leader's clothes, adding a new twist to a case that has obsessed the Arab world for years.
Polonium-210 is the same substance used to poison the Russian dissident Alexader Litvinenko in London.
New Scientist also reports on the story:
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22019-was-yasser-arafat-killed-by-radioactive-polonium210.htmlArafat's toothbrush showed levels of 54 mBq, while a urine stain on his underwear measured 180 mBq – another pair of underwear used as a control was just 6.7 mBq. "If it is more than 10 times the background level, you can assume it is significant," says Roger Jewsbury, a chemist at the University of Huddersfield, UK. "It is quite possible that he was poisoned."
[...]
The half-life of polonium-210 is 138 days, meaning the radioactivity of a sample drops by half during that period. Arafat died seven and a half years ago in November 2004. "That's something like 20 half-lives ago," says Regan. "Only one atom in a million of the original source would be left." But if his clothes have been contaminated by a natural source, it could have been continually replenished since then.
"They have to establish that the polonium is not associated with a natural occurring radioactive source," says Regan – perhaps by looking for other accompanying natural sources, such as lead-210, lead-214 or bismuth-214. Suha Arafat has now called for her late husband's body to be exhumed for further tests, a move which the Palestinian Authority has agreed to in principle, report Reuters.