My Science School

No one knew of the dangers radium posed when it was produced for the first time. Radium had an aura of mystery which attracted people. Moreover, people were fascinated by how it glowed when mixed with phosphor. No wonder, industries sprang up to manufacture hundreds of consumer products containing radium.

The health hazard caused by this fascinating new element was identified only later. The harmful effects of radium such as skin burns and hair loss were observed among early experimenters. Many of them died as a result of their work.

The widespread use of radium was later halted for health and safety reasons. But, its wide use in luminescent paints continued through World War II. The soft glow of radium’s luminescence made aircraft dials, gauges and other instruments visible to their operators at night.

Radium was also an early radiation source for cancer treatment. Small radioactive seeds were implanted in tumours to kill cancerous cells. Safer and more effective radiation sources are used today.

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The discovery of radium is one of the most interesting stories in science. The story begins with the research of the French physicist Antoine-Henri Becquerel of the ore called pitchblende containing the element uranium. Becquerel found that pitchblende gives off radiation.

Becquerel’s discovery caused great excitement among scientists. Many physicists stopped their own research and began to study this novelty. A scientist couple Marie and Pierre Curie were especially interested in pitchblende.

Eventually, they isolated a new element that gave off more intense radiation than pitchblende itself. The Curies named this new element polonium. That was not the end. They believed that there would be at least one other element in the pitchblende.

The couple continued with their studies and in 1898, they isolated a second new element- radium. Radium gave away intense radiations and it took the Curies another four years to prepare one gram of the element. To do so, they had to sift through more than seven metric tons of pitchblende!

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Strontium is a silvery metal that rapidly turns yellowish in air. It is found as a free metal in nature and is not dangerous. This is because the naturally occurring strontium is not radioactive. But strontium has some isotopes that are highly unstable and potentially dangerous. Strontium-90 is one such isotope of strontium.

Strontium-90 is produced as a result of a nuclear reaction. It became famous in the 1960s when it was produced as the result of an atomic bomb testing. In fact, when a nuclear explosion takes place, the tens of millions of tons of earth and rock that are thrown skywards contain strontium-90.

Strontium-90 contaminates air, water, soil and vegetation; severe radiations produced in the process can sicken both animals and humans and can even result in deaths.

Strontium-90 affects human bone tissues, marrow and blood. It can cause leukaemia and bone cancer too.

Picture Credit : Google