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OKAY BACK FROM THE X-RAY ROOM 🩻

Dial Painters Brushed Radium Paint Onto Dials And Instruments

Many Of Them Later Developed Bone Sarcomas

Osteosarcomas Were Found In The Dial Painter Studies

Cancers Of The Head Were Also Seen In Many Of Them

These Formed In The Bones Around The Sinuses Near The Nose

Others Formed Around The Mastoid Air Cells Behind The Ear

Both Kinds Appeared 5 To More Than 50 Years After First Exposure

A US Federal Health Report Says The Painters Swallowed The Radium

Where It Goes In The Body Is A Separate Question

The Report Looked For Studies Of Its Distribution In The Body

It Located None In People Or Animals

Instead It Assumes Swallowed Radium Ends Up In The Skeleton

That Assumption Is Based On The Bone Cancers In Dial Painters

It Is Also Based On Radium Found In Their Exhumed Skeletons

Radium's Affinity For Bone Is Assumed To Relate To Calcium

The Alkaline Earth Family Of Metals Includes Radium

Calcium And Strontium And Barium Belong To That Family Too

A Later Review Adds A Detail To That Comparison

Radium's Behavior In The Body Is Closer To Barium Than Calcium

Tissues Take Up And Remove Each Of These Metals At Different Rates

The Federal Report Also Describes A Radium Surveillance Program

A Center At Argonne National Laboratory Ran It

It Set Out To Identify People Exposed To Radium

The Details Of Their Exposure Were Worked Out Too

Sometimes That Meant Exhuming Their Remains

The Report Splits Its Cancer Counts Into Two Groups Of Painters

First Come The Painters Whose Radium Intake Was Estimated

There Were 1,907 Of Them

Of Those Painters 41 Developed Bone Sarcomas

Another 16 Developed Head Cancers

A Further 3 Developed Both Kinds Of Cancer

The Second Group Is Painters Whose Intake Was Not Estimated

That Group Numbered 2,928

Among Them 20 Had Bone Sarcomas And 5 Had Head Cancers

Together 85 Of The 4,835 Known Dial Painters Developed Cancer

The Report Says Those 85 Painters Got Cancer From Swallowing Radium

Based On The Argonne Findings Three Effects Are Tied To Radium

Bone Sarcomas And Head Cancers Are Two Of Those Effects

The Third Is Deterioration Of The Skeleton

Only These Three Are Considered Unequivocally Due To Internal Radium

Blood Effects Are Not Among The Three Unequivocal Effects

Early Blood Evidence Came From Pathologist Harrison Martland

In 1931 He Wrote About 18 Dial Painters Who Were Autopsied

Some Form Of Anemia Was On Ten Of Their Death Certificates

The Basis For Those Diagnoses Was Not Clearly Stated

Later Work By Sharpe In 1974 Analyzed Detailed Blood Data

It Covered Dial Painters And People Exposed To Radium In Other Ways

Examples Were Male Laborers And Equipment Operators In Radium Work

Sharpe Compared Those Exposed With Closely Matched Controls

He Concluded There Were No Consistent Blood Differences

With Limited Data It Is Hard To Tell If Blood Effects Are A Concern

The Report Also Addresses Leukemia

It Notes That Marrow Irradiation Often Induces Leukemia In Humans

Yet No Excess Leukemia Was Seen In Dial Painter Studies

Patients Injected With Radium Showed No Excess Either

A Cited Study Covered Patients Given Repeated Radium 224 Injections

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Was Above Control Levels In Those Patients

Acute Leukemia Was More Common In Their Control Group

A 1970 Paper By Loutit Reviewed The Early Reports On Radium

It Looked Especially At Reports By Martland

Loutit Used Statements And Microscope Photographs From Them

The Paper Says A Case Can Be Made That Radium Caused Marrow Cancer

That Case Covers Leukemia As Well As Bone Cancer

It Applies Especially With Large Doses