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
Showing posts with label radium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radium. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Friday, August 3, 2012
Radium Craze Still Haunting Paris-- Part 1
From the August 2nd Chicago Tribune by Michel Rose and Marion Douet, Reuters.
"The Belle Poche, France's golden era at the turn of the 19th century, bequeathed Paris elegant landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, but also a more sinister legacy of radioactive floors and backyards that the capital is only now addressing."
After Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium in 1898, it set off a craze for the luminescent material that led for using it for everything from clock dials to lipsticks to water fountains. The companies that produced them are long out of business, but their sites have left small doses of radium that can be dangerous over prolonged exposure.
Marie Curie never patented her discovery and a lot of people jumped in to make money from it. After she proved that it could destroy cancerous cells, people assumed it had healing powers and started putting it in everything from body lotions to cough syrups.
And There I Was Playing With the Mercury. --Cooter
"The Belle Poche, France's golden era at the turn of the 19th century, bequeathed Paris elegant landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, but also a more sinister legacy of radioactive floors and backyards that the capital is only now addressing."
After Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium in 1898, it set off a craze for the luminescent material that led for using it for everything from clock dials to lipsticks to water fountains. The companies that produced them are long out of business, but their sites have left small doses of radium that can be dangerous over prolonged exposure.
Marie Curie never patented her discovery and a lot of people jumped in to make money from it. After she proved that it could destroy cancerous cells, people assumed it had healing powers and started putting it in everything from body lotions to cough syrups.
And There I Was Playing With the Mercury. --Cooter
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