(15)īrady, Texas, is a community of 5,500 residents. While radium contaminated water was problematic throughout the state of Texas, results from EWG’s analysis were so egregious in Brady, Texas, that CBS News reported radium contamination in water there was nine times higher than it should be. One notable example of radium’s widespread impact was found in Texas, according the EWG. When radium exposure occurs, it affects whole communities because the contamination often originates from the same source and impacts the surrounding air, soil, and water. Bloody vomit and stools (internal bleeding).The Mayo Clinic indicates, “The severity of signs and symptoms of radiation sickness depends on how much radiation you’ve absorbed.” (11) It goes on to say, “How much you absorb depends on the strength of the radiated energy, the time of your exposures, and the distance between you and the source of radiation.” (12)Īdditional symptoms after exposure include: (14) External exposure results from contact of radioactive material with the skin. Inhalation, ingestion, injection, or wounds result in internal exposure to radionuclides. The World Health Organization (WHO) explains that radiation exposure can be internal or external. Water suppliers near industries that conduct business processes involving coal or fuel burning need to pay close attention to contaminant levels in their surrounding air, soil, and water. Contact with waste from ore, radium dial facilities, or radium dials.
Breathing air from burning fuels or coal.Drinking water with high levels of natural radium.Living in areas with elevated levels of radium.
The isotope radium-223 is sometimes used in cancer treatments that have spread to bone tissue. Today, radium is used in the radiography of metals, and it can be combined with other metals as a neutron source for research and radiation instrument calibration. This application is considered too hazardous for modern times and is no longer used. In the past, radium was used in luminous paints in products such as clocks or watch dials (since the radioactive alpha rays could not pass through the glass or metal casings of the watch). Furthermore, metallic radium was first isolated in 1910 by Marie Curie and Andrew Debierne via electrolysis of radium chloride (RaCl 2), the first radium compound isolated in a pure state.ĭue to its very high radioactivity, radium has very limited uses. The Curies were able to extract about 1 mg of radium from almost 10 tons of pitchblende. They named the new element for the Latin word “radius,” meaning “ray,” because of its high radiation emittance. Marie and Pierre Curie further separated these remains to find barium as well as the presence of an unknown element. After removing the uranium from the ore, they discovered that the remnants were still radioactive. Radium was first discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in Paris during their study of pitchblende in 1898. In the past, radium was a common element used in many everyday products and was thought to have curative properties until its intense radioactivity was found to cause adverse health effects. Pitchblende contains a small amount of radium as a radioactive decay product of uranium. Radium is extracted from pitchblende, a uranium-rich mineral and ore (UO 2). It is formed when uranium and thorium radioactively break down in the environment. Radium is about 1 million times more radioactive than uranium.
Radium is a soft, shiny, silvery-white metal (Fig.