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Plutonium is considered a very toxic element; it accumulates in the body without being easily metabolized or eliminated, doses as low as 5,000 total particles can be enough to increase the risk of cancer, and its half-life of 87 years is a good match for an average human lifetime.

The halflife of Plutonium-239 is not 87 years, it is 24,200 years. I cannot find any isotope of plutonium with a halflife near 87 years, so I don't know where that came from.

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