10/30/2022 0 Comments Radium effects![]() Radium effects full#The outcome of these experiments has been published in full elsewhere (1). Two years ago investigations were begun along this line in the Crocker Fund laboratory, using transplantable animal tumors, in which the results can be controlled with a far greater degree of accuracy than is possible in the human subject. Each investigator has developed a different method of applying and filtering rays, so that much confusion has arisen in regard to the most satisfactory method of applying these rays and the manner of employing them in order to obtain the best results. The observations along this line have been chiefly clinical, made, that is, upon tumors in man, where it was impossible to control the results with any degree of accuracy. However, of more importance is the fact that bone cancer from radium exposure is the only radiation exposure known to have a threshold, with bone cancer seen only for doses greater than about 10 mSv.During the last few years much has been written both for and against the usefulness of radium as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of malignant growths. This is 5% of the annual dose from other natural background radionuclides.Ĭhildren are not at higher risk for bone cancer than adults thus the calculated risk is very small based on radiation dose. An estimate of the annual dose from ingesting even unfiltered water at 0.93 Bq L -1 and two liters per day is 0.2 mSv (0.02 rem). Radium in the body is excreted very efficiently and the amount in the body is equal to about 25 days of intake. In a very large study of radium in the skeleton as a function of age, the fetal skeleton had the same ratio of radium to calcium as children and adults. ![]() The placenta does not discriminate against radium that is, it is absorbed the same as calcium. Because of its close association with calcium, radium in bone is reported as a ratio of radium to calcium. Radium is similar to calcium in its body metabolism and most radium goes directly to bone, with just a small percentage remaining in other tissues. There are several publications showing the range of radium concentration in drinking water in Joliet, Illinois, to be from 0.037 Bq L -1 to 0.93 Bq L -1, with an average of about 0.22 Bq L -1. In the 1950s there was considerable interest in radium in drinking water in Illinois because of the finding of relatively high concentrations compared with other water supplies in the United States. Is it true that infants absorb much more radium than adults do-therefore resulting in greater risk to the child? After he turned one year old we began to use a reverse osmosis filtration system. Anyway, I am now concerned about my son's risk of developing bone cancer or leukemia because of this water that I drank. ![]() We had a little carbon filter on our faucet, but that is the only form of filtration we used (I have since read that carbon filters are bad because they can trap radium and it can leach out over time). I tried to drink two liters per day because that is what I was supposed to do while pregnant and breast-feeding. At the time of my pregnancy and during the first year of his life (I breast-fed for 11 months) I ingested this water. The year he was born the levels of all of the different wells were at anywhere between 0.37 Bq L -1 and 0.89 Bq L -1-I was told the water is combined from many different wells. Joliet, Illinois, has high levels of radium in the drinking water. ![]()
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