Customers face tests for radioactivity following ex-spy's death

Customers at a restaurant and an hotel visited by a poisoned ex-KGB officer will be tested for the radioactive substance that killed him, health chiefs said today.

The Health Protection Agency called for people who had been to the Itsu sushi restaurant or Millennium Hotel in central London on November 1 to come forward.

Its appeal came as the Conservatives indicated that they would ask the British government to make a Commons statement over the affair.

The HPA is taking “extremely seriously” concerns that others may have been contaminated by the Polonium-210 that led to the death of Alexander Litvinenko in hospital on Thursday night although it made clear the risk was low.

Doctors discovered that he had somehow ingested a large dose of the radioactive substance and samples of this were later found in the hotel and restaurant.

Mr Litvinenko, a former colonel in the Russian security services, visited both places on November 1, the day he was taken ill.

A vocal opponent of Vladimir Putin, Mr Litvinenko, 43, claimed in a statement made public after his death that the Russian president had him poisoned.

Customers who visited Itsu or the Pine Bar or restaurant at the hotel on November 1 were today asked to contact NHS Direct.

Callers were being assessed using a questionnaire to decide whether they need to be tested for Polonium-210.

Data from NHS Direct was being submitted to the HPA’s Radiological Protection Division at Chilton, near Didcot, Oxfordshire.

Using the questionnaire results staff will decide whether to contact individuals and ask them for a urine sample.

Meanwhile GPs and hospitals have been alerted to look out for symptoms of contamination and advised of the “risks and clinical implications of exposure” to Polonium-210 by the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson.

The HPA has discovered it in a “small number of areas” at the hotel and the restaurant as well as Mr Litvinenko’s home in Muswell Hill, north London.

It is also investigating the clinical areas of Barnet General Hospital and University General Hospital where he was treated.

In its statement today it said: “We want to reassure the public that the risk of having been exposed to this substance remains low.

“It can only represent a radiation hazard if it is taken into the body – by breathing it in, by taking it into the mouth, or if it gets into a wound.

“It is not a radiological hazard as long as it remains outside the body. Most traces of it can be eliminated through handwashing, or washing machine and dishwasher cycles.”

Professor Roger Cox of the HPA told Sky News the current procedure was designed both to identify the extent of the problem and provide reassurance.

He added: “We are clearly taking this extremely seriously. There is a lot of radioactivity involved.”

The concern was that blood, urine or faeces from Mr Litvinenko may have been picked up through poor hygiene and given someone else an “internal dose”.

Results from tests could be expected at the earliest some time next week.

Meanwhile Clive Schlee, managing director of Itsu, said he had not had a single report from staff or customers of any illness related to the events.

Today Mr Litvinenko’s friend Alex Goldfarb told BBC News 24 the episode had been a “devastating experience” for his wife Marina, 44, and son Anatole, 12.

Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism unit is investigating but has not described it as murder. Earlier police had said they suspected deliberate poisoning. No arrests have been made.

The Conservatives demanded a Commons statement and shadow Home Secretary David Davis called for cooperation with police enquiries from all concerned, including if necessary the Russian authorities.

He said: “It is essential that other dissidents living in Britain are reassured about their safety and there are also questions about how polonium 210 came to be used in Britain.”

Cobra, the Government’s emergency planning committee, chaired by Home Office minister Tony McNulty, met today to discuss the affair.

A post-mortem examination of Mr Litvinenko’s body has been delayed while a risk assessment is carried out to see if it is safe to perform the procedure and what precautions may be necessary.

The inquest into his death is expected to be opened in the coming days at St Pancras Coroner’s Court in north London.

Foreign Office officials have passed on a request via the Russian Ambassador, Yuri Fedotov, asking authorities in Moscow to make available any information which might assist police with their enquiries.