PERILS OF RADIUM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 152, 30 June 1932, Page 11

PERILS OF RADIUM

DEATH TRAP AND BLESSING Radium, that rare element which has opened a new world to the experimentation of scientific men, so far has been a death, trap as well as a blessing to tho human race. While, on one hand, it ha^expanded greatly thc field of science aud has given promise of ultimate victory over the dread disease of cancer, on the other hand it and its products have taken a heavy toll of lives.

Five “radium girls” of New Jersey, poisoned by luminous radium paint while working in tho plant of a great corporation engaged in producing watch-dials and other similar products, sued the corporation for 1,250,000 dollars. The suit was filed in 1928, and later tho five w’ere awarded cash settlements and annuities and provided with expert medical attention. Some of the five have died and tho others are waiting for death. In tho last three years approximately a score of persons has died in. the United States as the result of radium 1 poisoning contracted in factories which use luminous paint. Manufacturers, while still producing articles in which radium products are employed, are sparing no expense to develop methods for protecting their employees from the dangers of poison-

Thc handling of radium in the hospitals in the treatment of cancer or other disease is a perilous occupation. While radium is tho best known curative agent for cancer, it also may cause cancer if not handled properly. Extensive precautions are taken in the hospitals to protect operators and patients from burns. Nurses are protected by lead doors three-quarters of an inch thick, while patients are being given radium treatments.

In the Memorial Hospital in New York a half million dollars’ worth of radium is employed in tho treatment of cancer. This is said to bo the greatest single supply of radium in any hospital in the world. ?it that institution many scientific methods have been developed for handling the precious element in safety. One of the methods provides for the absorption of radium emanation in a gold tube. The tube then is cut into “seeds” 14-one-hundredths of an inch long. Tho “seeds” are perfectly harmless at the time tho operator cuts thorn from the gold tube, but two hours later they become dangerous. It is then that extra precautions arc taken to prevent burns.