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Radium Research Paper

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In 1898, while studying a uranium sample, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium, an element that would spark a health reform in America to help protect not only women factory workers, but everyone in the nation, from industrial radiation. Radium was supplied to the military by the U.S. Radium Corporation for the purpose of creating a watch face that soldiers could see while they were in trenches and in the dark, but not having the watch face be too bright as to be spotted by enemy troops. The U.S. Radium Corporation opened up jobs and hired for about 4,000 women, as a rough estimate, to paint these watch faces with radium to slightly illuminate them. These women would dab a radium tipped paintbrush in their mouth to make the tip finer in …show more content…
When uranium or thorium isotopes decay within an environment, the end result is radium. The most common type of radium is radium-226, which occurs from the decay of uranium-238. After the uranium or thorium isotopes decay, the produced radium is a brilliant white while still fresh, but once exposed to air, it blackens. Few radium compounds and purified radium compounds are glow in the dark, and the radiation emitted by radium can caused phosphors to emit light. The watch faces were painted by using these mixtures of radium salts and phosphors, until the dangers of radium was discovered. Before the effects of radium were discovered, radium was used for glow in the dark watch faces, along with products such as toothpaste, ointments, hair tonic, and elixirs, because the population was led to believe that the radium could cure many ailments, including arthritis, wrinkles, to rejuvenate the skin, as a treatment of impotence, among other uses.. When the true effects or radium was discovered, many of the original uses were stopped due to health concerns and safety reasons. While radium has negative health effects, one is exposed to this on a daily basis, just not in a large concentration. One is exposed to this on a daily basis because radium occurs naturally in the environment, and since it is a decayed form of uranium and thorium, it is common in most rocks, soils, and waters. However, the

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