Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Radium (usually in the form of radium chloride or radium bromide) was used in medicine to produce radon gas, which in turn was used as a cancer treatment. [6] Several of these radon sources were used in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. [ 62 ]
Although old radium dials generally no longer produce light, this is due to the breakdown of the crystal structure of the luminous zinc sulfide rather than the radioactive decay of the radium. The radium isotope (226 Ra) used has a half-life of about 1,600 years, [7] so radium dials remain essentially just as radioactive as when originally ...
Radium paint was widely used for 40 years on the faces of watches, compasses, and aircraft instruments, so they could be read in the dark. Radium is a radiological hazard , emitting gamma rays that can penetrate a glass watch dial and into human tissue.
Radium dial painters were instructed in proper safety precautions and provided with protective gear; in particular, they no longer shaped paint brushes by lip and avoided ingesting or breathing the paint. Radium paint was still used in dials as late as the 1970s. [27] The last factory manufacturing radium paint shut down in 1978. [28]
The resulting dials are now collectively known as radium dials. The luminous paint used on the dials contained a mixture of zinc sulfide activated with silver, and powdered radium, a product that the Radium Dial Company named Luma. However, unlike the US Radium Corporation, Radium Dial Company was specifically set up to only paint dials, and no ...
The widespread use of radium in medicine ended when it was discovered that physical tolerance was lower than expected and exposure caused long term cell damage that could appear in carcinoma up to 40 years after treatment. [5] The use of radiation continues today as a treatment for cancer in radiation therapy.
In August 1921, von Sochocky was forced from the presidency, and the company was renamed the United States Radium Corporation, [3] Arthur Roeder became the president of the company. [4] In Orange, where radium was extracted from 1917 to 1926, the U.S. Radium facility processed half a ton of ore per day. [3]
Radium was used in luminous paint until the 1960s, when it was replaced with the other radioisotopes mentioned above due to health concerns. [2] In addition to alpha and beta particles , radium emits penetrating gamma rays , which can pass through the metal and glass of a watch dial, and skin.