Continued from 8-3-12.
Cancerous cells are more sensitive to radiation than healthy ones. Curie died at age 66 from prolonged, unprotected exposure to radium.
France has identified about 130 sites suspected of raving radiation risks. Old addresses on vintage advertising posters were even used to locate them. About 40 of them are in the Paris area.
In Chaville, a suburb about seven miles away from central Paris, a two-story detached house has men in white bio-hazard suits drilling holes in wooden floors of what had been an aircraft altimeter factory before World War II. Factory workers colored the dials with glow-in-the-dark paint made from radium powder and zinc sulfide.
These workers suffered a similar plight as the so-called Radium Girls in the U.S. who contracted radiation poisoning around 1917 from licking their paintbrushes to sharpen them.
Traces of radium were srtill present at the site. Though the amount is too small to present risk, it will still have to be collected and sent to a nuclear waste storage facility.
The cost for a house like this will be around 260,000 euros, about $318,000.
So, Be Careful in Paris If You See Something Glowing in the Dark. --Cooter
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