“They put it in all these things saying it was a cure-all, without actually knowing the bad side effects.” They put it in water they used it for paint,” sophomore Logan Hagen said. “They were selling radium as miracle drugs. Sophomores in teacher Grace Boersma’s classroom at Godwin Heights High School recently discovered for themselves how the radium in paint that made watch dials glow left a legacy of illness and death in its wake. What was happening to these employees, who spent their days painting faces on timepieces? 226Ra has the longest half-life of 1602 years.A century ago, health problems began plaguing the women and girls who worked at the Radium Dial Company. Isotopes: Radium has 33 isotopes whose half-lives are known, with mass numbers 202 to 234. Most radium, 226Ra, arises from the decay of the plentiful 238U, hence radium is obtained in residues taken from uranium production. Radium is present at very low concentrations in sea water. Source: Radium is present in tiny amounts in all uranium ores – it arises from uranium decay. Safer treatments are now available.Ībundance earth’s crust: 1 part per trillion by weight, 0.1 parts per trillion by molesĪbundance solar system: parts per billion by weight, part per billion by moles Radium chloride was used medicinally to produce radon gas for cancer treatment. Radium was used in the production of luminous paints, but this is now considered too dangerous. It reacts with even more vigorously with hydrochloric acid to form radium chloride. It reacts very vigorously with water to form hydrogen gas and radium hydroxide. Radium’s chemistry is similar to that of the other alkali earth metals. When it is exposed to air, it reacts with nitrogen to quickly form a black coating of radium nitride. One result of radium’s intense radioactivity is that the metal and its compounds glow in the dark. It is highly radioactive and its decay product, radon gas, is also radioactive. Radium, like calcium, is a group II element and our bodies treat it in a similar way. Microscopic quantities of radium in the environment can lead to some accumulation of radium in bone tissue.

Radium is highly radioactive and hence carcinogenic. People were sold radium to drink for the good of their health! It would also cure insanity! With the discovery and understanding of radioactivity, chemists realized that one of alchemy’s dreams – the transmutation of elements – was possible. The element’s name comes from the Latin word ‘radius’ meaning ray, after the rays emitted by this radioactive element. Metallic radium was first isolated in 1910 by Marie Curie and Andre Debierne by the electrolysis of a solution of pure radium chloride. Now, in radium – in the form of radium bromide – they had discovered a further radioactive element whose chemistry was very similar to that of group II metal barium. This was the Curie’s second major discovery in 1898 earlier that year they discovered polonium, a new radioactive element whose properties they said were similar to bismuth’s. Curie and her husband Pierre in pitchblende (mainly uranium dioxide, UO 2).Ībout eight tons of pitchblende made up of 50 percent uranium oxides is needed to extract 1 gram of radium. Radium was discovered in 1898 in Paris, by Marie S. The radium glows allowing the gauges to be read in darkness. World War II aircraft gauges containing radium.

Radium effects