Before last week, hardly anyone had heard of osmium, let alone its tetroxide. But on 5 April, the chemical achieved global notoriety as the latest weapon in the arsenal of terrorists.
The world鈥檚 media reported that thanks to secret eavesdropping by US and British security services, counter-terrorism police had foiled a plot in the UK to lace a conventional bomb with osmium tetroxide. The chemical could make any bomb more explosive, or create extra casualties and confusion by acting as an irritant, the reports said.
Osmium tetroxide is usually used in tiny amounts to stain biological tissue to make it more visible to electron microscopes. But it is hugely expensive, typically costing 拢100 a gram. And while it can generate vapours that cause blindness, skin rashes and burning in the throat and lungs, experts contacted by New 杏吧原创 say it is an unlikely weapon as there are far cheaper and more practical alternatives.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 so amazingly expensive it would be like putting platinum in a bomb,鈥� says Alastair Hay, an environmental toxicology expert at the University of Leeds, UK. 鈥淭he blast itself would do much more damage to eyes and lungs, so whether osmium tetroxide would add much to that I don鈥檛 know.鈥�
Frank Barnaby of the Oxford Research Group, a consultancy specialising in weapons issues, was equally sceptical. 鈥淚鈥檇 say it鈥檚 very implausible. One wonders if it isn鈥檛 a hoax.鈥�