Modern Connections
This U.S. agency regulates the licensing, storage, and disposal of radium.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
In 1898, this husband-and-wife scientific team discovered radium-226.
Who were the Marie and Pierre Curie.
The product painted in the factories Radium Girls worked in?
What are luminescent watch dials.
What major tissue is impacted by radium?
Bones/Teeth
It took until this year for strict national regulations on radioactive materials like radium to be established.
2005
During the early 1900s to 1920s, companies added radium to everyday items claiming they would provide this type of benefit.
What is (anything health related)
This method of precise painting caused chronic radiation poisoning for the Radium Girls.
What is licking the paintbrush
Roughly zero
Today, this industry still occasionally uses radium to detect cracks and flaws in metal parts.
industrial radiography
This nickname refers to the factory workers who suffered radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with radium.
Who were the Radium Girls.
Property of radium that made it desirable for watch dial applications.
What is luminescence
Other than bone cancer what is a common disease the radium dial painters had?
Anemia
This radioactive isotope replaced radium in many cancer treatments because it was safer and easier to control.
cobalt-60
This major WWII project led to the discovery of cheaper and more abundant radioactive isotopes making radium nearly obsolete in the 1940s.
What is the Manhattan Project.
This type of radiation emitted by radium cannot penetrate the skin but causes severe internal damage when ingested.
What is Alpha radiation/particles
When entering the body most of radium is excreted. How much enters the bloodstream and is carried to tissues?
20%
Breaking NRC regulations for radium use can lead to these serious outcomes, including ______.
criminal charges, loss of license, and major financial penalties
Although early attempts to regulate radium in the 1960s and 1985 failed, federal regulation finally began after rising concerns about what issue in the 1990s?
What is terrorism
Once inside the body, radium behaves like this mineral leading to deposition in bones and teeth.
What is calcium
What is Radium-226 half-life?
1,600 years