Historical Background
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1895 -Wilhem Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays and in 1901 he was awarded the first Nobel Prize for physics.
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1898 – Radium was discovered by Marie Curie
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1900-1930 –Radium Therapy -used to treat arthritis, stomach ailments and cancer
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1903 -Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, along with Henri Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their contributions to understanding radioactivity, including the properties of uranium.
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1942 - Enrico Fermi and others started the first sustained nuclear chain reaction in a laboratory beneath the University of Chicago football stadium.
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1945 –Nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.
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1979 - Nuclear accident in Pennsylvania.
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1986 - Nuclear disaster in Ukraine.
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Story of the radium paint
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The US Radium Corporation employed young women to paint radium on watch dials. These women used their lips to point the brushes. Each time they pointed their brushes, they ingested a small amount of radium. The radium thus ingested moved to the bone where it continued to emit alpha radiation. The alpha radiation damaged the cells near the radium particle. As a result of their exposure to radium, many of these women developed painfully debilitating bone decay and died of cancer.
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The long half-life of radium combined with it being sequestered in the bone resulted in a lifetime of radiation exposure. During the 1920s, a group of these women sued the Radium Corporation. Many of them were victorious in court and received a small amount of money, becoming the first to receive compensation for occupational injury.
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Last modified: Friday, 28 October 2011, 7:22 AM