Radium - Precautions

Precautions

Radium is highly radioactive and its decay product, radon gas, is also radioactive. Since radium is chemically similar to calcium, it has the potential to cause great harm by replacing calcium in bones. Exposure to radium can cause cancer and other disorders, because radium and its decay product radon emit alpha particles upon their decay, which kill and mutate cells. The dangers of radium were apparent from the start. The first case of so-called "radium-dermatitis" was reported in 1900, only 2 years after the element's discovery. The French physicist Antoine Becquerel carried a small ampoule of radium around in his waistcoat pocket for 6 hours and reported that his skin became ulcerated. Marie Curie also had a similar incident in which she experimented with a tiny sample that she kept in contact with her skin for 10 hours and noted how an ulcer appeared, although not for several days. Handling of radium has also been blamed for Curie's death due to aplastic anemia. Stored radium should be ventilated to prevent accumulation of radon. Emitted energy from the decay of radium also ionizes gases, affects photographic plates, and produces many other detrimental effects – to the extent that at the time of the Manhattan Project in 1944, the "tolerance dose" for workers was set at 0.1 microgram of ingested radium.