Page 90 - Radiation Safety

Milestones in radiological effects

1 st recorded experiment: performed by Becquerel when he

advertently left a radium container in his vest pocket. Skin erythema

appeared two weeks later which required several weeks to heal.

1901 P Curie repeated the experiment by deliberately producing a

radium ‘burn’ on his own forearm.

pitchblende miners – as the results of exposure and inhalation of Rn-

222 and Rn-220 and daughters (lung disease)

Painting Worker : Watch dials painted with Ra-containing paints –

inhalation and licking of radium (361 of the workers had 226 Ra and

228 Ra in their bone).

Patients exposed to radiation for diagnostic or therapy.

Victims of accidents and bombings - Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl

etc