The case of the former Russian spy poisoned by polonium has reached across the ocean to touch the Tri-Cities.

Experts in radiation protection for the Washington State Department of Health are based in the Tri-Cities to keep tabs on the Hanford nuclear reservation and other businesses here.

But recently, they've heard from doctors of at least two Washington residents who flew British Airways jets.

After traces of radioactive polonium 210 were found on two of the airline's Boeing 767s and a third jetliner was suspected of contamination in late November, British Airways began notifying passengers on 200 flights from Oct. 25 to Nov. 29.

Contacted by the doctors of Washington passengers in the Seattle and Spokane areas, Earl Fordham, the regional director for the state's Office of Radiation Protection, has assured them their patients are unlikely to be at risk.

There's little cause for concern, Fordham said.

Polonium 210 emits alpha radiation, which does not travel far. It can be stopped by a sheet of paper or the outer layer of dead skin on the human body.

The Health Protection Agency of the United Kingdom is telling people that polonium is not a radiological hazard as long as it remains outside the body. Traces can be removed by thorough hand washing or washing clothes. It only presents a radiation hazard if it is swallowed, inhaled, or rubbed into a wound.

Traces of radiation have been found not only in British Airways jetliner, but also in a dozen sites across London after former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko died Nov. 23 of polonium poisoning.

He met with Italian security expert Mario Scaramella in a London sushi bar Nov. 1, and Scaramella also was exposed to polonium, but did not become ill. Litvinenko's wife also was determined to have been exposed.

On his deathbed, Litvinenko blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the poisoning, an accusation denied by Putin. British police have been in Russian investigating the case.