Radioactive Artifacts: Historical Sources of Modern Radium Contamination.

Radium has been distributed in a wide variety of devices during the early part of this century. Antique objects containing significant amounts of radium turn up at flea markets, antique shows, and antique dealers, in a variety of locations. These objects include radium in devices which were used by legitimate medical practitioners for legitimate medical purposes such as therapy, as well as a wide variety of "quack cures." These devices may contain anywhere from a few nanocuries to as much as several hundred microcuries of radium. In addition to medical sources, a large variety of scientific instruments utilize radium in luminous dials. These instruments include compasses, azimuth indicators, and virtually any object which might require some form of calibration. In addition, the consumer market utilized a large amount of radium in the production of wrist watches, pocket watches, and clocks with luminous dials. Some of these watches contained as much as 4.5 µCi of radium, and between 1913 and 1920 about 70 gm was produced for the manufacture of luminous compounds. In addition to the large amount of radium produced for scientific and consumer utilization, there were a number of materials produced which were claimed to contain radium but in fact did not, further adding to the confusion in this area. The wide availability of radium is a result of the public's great fascination with radioactivity during the early part of this century and a belief in its curative properties. A number of objects were produced in order to trap the emanations of radium in water for persons to drink in order to benefit from their healing effects. Since the late 20s and early 30s the public's attitude towards radiation has shifted 180° and it is now considered an extremely dangerous and harmful material. However, even as late as the 1950s, there were still some items produced containing radioactivity which today would be unthinkable. The "Buck Rogers Mystery Ring" of the 1950s was activated with polonium. With the shift in public attitudes towards radioactivity, and increasing problems in disposal of radioactive materials, the disposal of radium presents a particularly perplexing problem. The radium which was produced in the early part of the century is still around in various forms and is extremely difficult to dispose of. All objects discovered claiming to contain radium should be taken seriously and should be properly surveyed. They then should either be stored in some area where the environment is protected from the radioactivity or if a very small amount of radium is present, they may be disposed of through one of several commercial sources. Any significant amount of radium is extraordinarily difficult and expensive to dispose of and there are only limited sites which will accept these materials. No clear cut, uniform mechanism for the handling of radioactive materials which turn up outside of the usual institutional sources, is currently in place.

Professor Anastas Kocarev, First Macedonian Oncologist with Worldwide Reputation and Pioneer in Cancer Diagnostics and Treatment with Radium.

PhD. Anastas Kocarev (Kotzareff in French) is one of the most prominent Macedonian doctors and experts, prolific contributor to the cancer research in Switzerland and France in the first decades of the 20th century. He was born in Ohrid on May 5th, 1889. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva where he defended a doctorate in medicine in 1915. In 1916 he was elected Assistant Professor (Private Docent) at that Faculty. He was a prominent scientist and professor of experimental medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva and the Sorbonne University in Paris, with a wide reputation in Europe and the United States. PhD. A. Kocarev is one of the pioneers of oncology and radiology in the world, a forerunner of modern nuclear medicine and positron emission tomography. He was a close associate of Nobel laureate in chemistry and physics Maria Sklodovska-Curie and at her invitation moved to Paris in 1925 to continue the research on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer using radium. He was fully devoted to science and published numerous scientific papers and books with high citations and dissemination in many medical libraries in Europe and beyond. In addition to his professional teaching and scientific work as a top oncologist-radiologist, he was a great patriot with advanced political ideas. He founded the Academic Society "Macedonia" in Geneva, in 1915, and united it with other Macedonian political associations from Zurich and Lausanne, in 1918, into a joint "Alliance of Macedonian Societies for Independent Macedonia", with commitments, activities and initiatives to the Society of Nations, based in Geneva, Switzerland, for the proper resolution of the Macedonian national issue by creating a united and independent state "Macedonia" or the formation of a "Balkan Federation". He died suddenly in Paris on March 29, 1931.

Radium, biophysics, and radiobiology: tracing the history of radiobiology in twentieth-century China.

Radiobiology assesses the biological hazards of exposure to radioactive substances and nuclear radiation. This article explores the history of radiobiology in twentieth-century China by examining the overlapping of radium research and biophysics, from roughly the 1920s Nationalist period to the 1960s Communist period; from the foreign purchase of radium by the Rockefeller Foundation's China Medical Board during the Republican era, to the institutional establishment of radiobiology as a subset of biophysics in the People's Republic. Western historiography of radiobiology highlights the connection between the military development of nuclear weapons and the civilian use of radiation in biology, as well as the international export of radioisotopes and nuclear reactors. Considering the exclusion of China from Western atomic diplomacy, I argue that the study of the Chinese history of bomb-making and radiobiology is necessary not just to fill an existing knowledge gap, but more importantly to elucidate the influence of the Chinese nuclear weapons program and Cold War atomic politics on Chinese life-science enterprises. Through examining the formational history of the radiobiology program in China, I hope to shed light on the implications of the atomic age for Chinese biology in the twentieth century.

Universal Expositions, physics-chemistry and new occupational diseases: the case of Marie Sklodowska Curie and radium girls. / Esposizioni universali, la fisica-chimica e le nuove malattie da lavoro: il caso di Marie Sklodowska Curie e le ragazze del radio.

BACKGROUND: Radium discovery by Marie and Pierre Curies caused previously unknown diseases. Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) suffered from radiations effects, as did girls in the radium dial watches factories. Therapeutic effects of radium were soon discovered, its unhealthy effects were as yet unheard of. OBJECTIVES: Analysis of Marie Sklodowska Curie (Marie) and radium girls occupational exposure, taking scientific debate on radium dangerous effects into account. METHODS: analysis of occupational exposure and diseases of Marie and radium girls in major documents, including Curie archive letters. RESULTS: Marie had dermatitis, radiodermatitis, tinnitus, one abortion, cataracts, tubercolosis, aplastic anemia. She also was a victim of mobbing. Women employed in the New Jersey radium dial watches factories, often immigrants, died of jaw necrosis, sarcoma of femur, anemia, leukemia and other radium related diseases. Marie was first asked about radium adverse effects by the New Jersey Department of labour (1925), Lise Meitner (1928) and the American Society for Cancer Control (1929). In 1928 Alice Hamilton organized a radium conference in order to find a solution to the radium girls' new disease. In 1929, during her second visit to the United States of America (USA), Marie declared how only prevention could save "radium girls". In 1934 she died of aplastic anemia, just like many radium girls. That year International Labour Office listed the new disease as due to "radium, radioactive substances, X-rays"; it was followed in 1937 by five USA states. CONCLUSIONS: Unheard of knowledge, conflict of interest, scientific delay, incompetence and no prevention were yesterday, as they are today, the cause of many preventable women deaths.

Nasopharyngeal radium irradiation: The lessons of history.

In the Netherlands, nasopharyngeal radium irradiation was started in 1945. The indications included refractory symptoms of otitis media with effusion and other adenoid-related disorders after adenoidectomy. It was considered a safe and effective therapy. Its use decreased sharply in 1958, following a worldwide media avalanche around the dramatic events in the treatment of a 5-year-old child in Utrecht, enhancing the widespread fear of radioactivity. This case history illustrates the powerful role of the media in medical decision-making.

Painting Dose: The ART of Radiation.

The discovery of X rays in 1895 captivated society like no other scientific advance. Radiation instantly became the subject not only of numerous scientific papers but also of circus bazaars, poetry, fiction, costume design, comics, and marketing for household items. Its spread was "viral." What is not well known, however, is its incorporation into visual art, despite the long tradition of medicine and surgery as a subject in art. Using several contemporary search methods, we identified 5 examples of paintings or sculpture that thematically feature radiation therapy. All were by artists with exhibited careers in art: Georges Chicotot, Marcel Duchamp, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Robert Pope, and Cookie Kerxton. Each artist portrays radiation differently, ranging from traditional healer, to mysterious danger, to futuristic propaganda, to the emotional challenges of undergoing cancer therapy. This range captures the complex role of radiation as both a therapy and a hazard. Whereas some of these artists are now world famous, none of these artworks are as well known as their surgical counterparts. The penetration of radiation into popular culture was rapid and pervasive; yet, its role as a thematic subject in art never fully caught on, perhaps because of a lack of understanding of the technology, radiation's intangibility, or even a suppressive effect of society's ambivalent relationship with it. These 5 artists have established a rich foundation upon which pop culture and art can further develop with time to reflect the extraordinary progress of modern radiation therapy.

Geoffrey Keynes's Two-Fold Vision: Medical Savant-Connoisseur and Literary Bibliographer.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the British surgeon Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982) treated breast cancer with radium instead of the hegemonic radical mastectomy, while vehemently attacking the "radicalists" for mutilating women. Keynes was also a leading bibliographer of literary figures from Sir Thomas Browne to William Blake through Jane Austen. This article argues that these endeavors did not inhabit separate worlds, but rather his bibliographic methods of collecting and sorting were deeply interwoven with his therapeutic practices and medical ways of knowing. The article also examines the profound influence his engagement with the works of William Blake had on his battle against the reigning medical orthodoxy and on the humanity of his relationship with his patients. It concludes that Keynes' story sheds light on a now distant medico-cultural world where literary studies, often centered on book collecting and critique, were not only highly valued, but were influential in guiding the vision and behavior of a number of physicians.