Radium Irradiation Research Paper

In the early 1900’s, the discovery of a luminescent material, radium, arrived on the scene to the delight of a fascinated and eager public. At first, it seemed to be a miracle remedy, not just harmless but even beneficial. However, when a multitude of watch dial painters were exposed to this substance on an extremely consistent basis, the negative effects began bubbling to the surface. These “Radium Girls” were unknowingly consuming a potentially lethal substance and would be the first victims of radium poisoning and radioactivity. Not many people knew about the dangers of radioactive substances or radium poisoning and many others had made judgements that were clouded by the perfection of the glowing sensation. In spite of this, the horrific afflictions that the Radium Girls endured helped shift the public perspective of radium from “wonder drug” to “pitiless poison” and started the country on a path to regulating the handling of radioactive

Henri Alexandre Danlos and Eugene Bloch placed radium in contact with a tuberculous skin lesion.

From surgery to radium exposure to such extremes as radiation therapy, as doctors’ knowledge of the varying types of cancer, and the expansion of medical research regarding cancer has changed, so has the preferred method of treatment. Doctors and researchers dedicated to studying cancer have led to a greater understanding of cancer development; consequently the development of treatments and cures that are more effective, less harmful, have fewer side effects, and in some cases serve to prevent the spread of cancer.

Until the early 1900's, scientists used several methods of measurement in their efforts to determine the age of the Earth. They studied sedimentation and erosion, stratification (with fossil evidence), measured the salinity of the oceans, and used thermodynamics to determine loss of heat since the Earth's beginning. Each of these approaches yielded estimates that the Earth was anywhere from 24 to 100 million years old.

Radium appears as a shiny, silvery metal of high radioactivity. Radium can be “used to treat prostate cancer that has spread to the bones,” and in the past, it was “used in luminous paints, for example in clock and watch dials” (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017). Radium is present in the environment, and people that live in areas where coal or other fuels are burning and released into the air are more exposed to higher levels of radium. Radium can enter the body by breathing or swallowing and can remain in the body for months, only exiting in small amounts by urine and feces (“Public Health Statement for Radium,” 1990). High levels of radium exposure over a long period of time are extremely dangerous to the health of an individual. The harmful effects of radium could cause “anemia, cataracts, fractured teeth, cancer (especially bone cancer), and death” (“Public Health Statement for Radium,” 1990). The greater amount of radium exposure an individual receives, the greater their chance is to developing one of these diseases (“Public Health Statement for Radium,”

In the early 1900’s radium was “the latest miracle substance” (Hersher & Blum, 2014). Salesmen promised that it extended lifespans, increased sex drive, made women more beautiful, and had many other fantastic effects. The world was infatuated with radium and displayed this by putting it in slews of items including face cream, bread, chocolate, suppositories, toy sets for children, drinking water (as shown in figure 1), toothpaste, watch faces, and many more products. (List from scribal.com, 2007) It was used often in pharmaceuticals and described by advertisers as “nature’s way to health.” “Doctors used it to treat everything from colds to cancer.” (Hersher & Blum, 2014) However, the “magical” substance that was radium turned out to

Doctors had been using radiation to destroy cancerous cells since the unfolding of X-rays and radium in the 1890s, but both techniques had their own issues. X-ray machines were complicated to make use of, and radium implanted near tumors. In addition, X-rays weren’t strong enough to be entirely effective, and as for both of them, they were quite expensive.

I interviewed Martha Dibb over the phone to see what her life is like working at Gundersen as a radiation therapist. Martha is a relatively new radiation therapist that graduated from La Crosse two years ago. Her bachelors in radiation therapy is the only degree she has up to this point. She does not plan to pursue any managerial roles at this point in her career, but she does have an open mind. She completed her internship at Gundersen and said she really loved doing her internship there. After she graduated she received a job at Aurora in Kenosha, and she worked there for nine to ten months before getting a job as a radiation therapist back at Gundersen. She has now worked at Gundersen for about eight months and really seems to enjoy working there. I asked her if there were any difference between Gundersen and Aurora and she said there actually is a lot of difference since Aurora in Kenosha was a small radiation center. According to her when she worked in Kenosha the radiation

There are three main centers of dial painting: Orange, New Jersey, Waterbury, Connecticut, and Ottawa, Illinois. At the factory, women would carefully mix the radium paint and then bring the brush to their lips to make the tip finer. This technique was called lip pointing, and it allowed dial-painters to paint with more precision. Workers traveled from Orange to Waterbury to teach this method. This simple act of bringing the paintbrush to their lips had tragic consequences for the dial-painters. The radium deposited in their body slowly weakened their bones and built cancers. Radium is particularly dangerous because it forms chemical bonds in the same way that calcium does. The body can mistake it for calcium and absorb it into the bones. Then the radiation from the radium is at closer range. (Denise,

“Imagine being locked in your own body. Imagine not being able to speak, walk on your own, see, or even swallow your own food; while having complete cognitive abilities and independent thought. Imagine waking up every morning and experiencing the sensation of losing the use of another finger, toe, or limb at a pace that shuts down your entire body within weeks. You are trapped, without hope or without a lifeline to the world around you. Now imagine you are just 6 years old,” (“The Cure Starts Now”). In January of 2007, life for a young girl and her family was about to change forever. Four-year-old Grace Ekis was undoubtedly diagnosed with an extremely rare and unfortunately incurable brain tumor called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, or

beam is red at the target site depending on the phase or displacement windows chosen

Depleted Uranium is a significant problem that is harming innocent people. People who are living in heavily militarized areas are getting the worst of it. The people living in the city of Fallujah are trying simply wanting to live and the use of DU as a conventional war weapon is destructive by killing people, or compromising their health. It makes it difficult to go to work when a person develops cancer and is too tired and sick to get out of bed. For a women to be pregnant and after giving birth realizes her baby has serious deformities is heartbreaking. Fallujah is one example of a population severely affected by the use of depleted uranium. Furthermore, the lack of information and unwillingness by the United States government to recognize

Depleted uranium is a type of radioactive material that is produced during the Uranium enrichment process (WHO, N.D., p.1). The enriched uranium is removed from the depleted portions and used for various purposes such as production of nuclear weapons or nuclear power plants; the depleted portions are used for, among other things, military munitions. These munitions are not highly radioactive but could they be used for a RDD?

The color of the skin of each person is determined by their heritage and melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells that produce melanin, a pigment that plays a fundamental role in protecting against the harmful effects of ultraviolet irradiation from the sun. Therefore, the geographic area where we live also has some involvement in the color skin. This means that people living near the equator (Ecuador), with intense UVB irradiation, have developed darker skin to protect them from the harmful effects of UVB irradiation . Instead, those living in the higher latitudes, closer to both poles, they get a clearer skin to maximize vitamin D production.

There are many advantages and disadvantages to the use of radioactive elements in medicines. Some advantages include the fact that