Tests on three more London hotel workers have shown they were exposed to low levels of polonium 210, the radioactive poison that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, health authorities said today.
The tests bring to ten the number of people in Britain found to have been contaminated by polonium since Litvinenko died on November 23rd.
He accused the Kremlin of assassinating him in a murky spy case which has strained relations between London and Moscow.
Moscow has strongly denied the charge and dismissed Litvinenko, a former member of its FSB security agency, as a low-level figure with no access to intelligence secrets.
The Health Protection Agency said the ten people exposed in Britain, nine hotel staff and Litvinenko's wife, face no immediate danger, and any long-term health risk is likely to be very small.
The latest positive tests include the first on a member of staff from London's Sheraton Hotel, as well as two more at the Millennium Hotel where Litvinenko met two Russian contacts on November 1st, the day he fell ill.
One of those contacts, Andrei Lugovoy, has said in press interviews that he stayed at the Sheraton in one of three visits to London in October that he made in quick succession. The second man at the meeting, Dmitry Kovtun, is being investigated by German authorities after traces of polonium were found at properties he used in Hamburg.
Both men deny any involvement in Litvinenko's poisoning.