[ RadSafe ] Dose to Mae Keane may be kilorads!

Wed Jun 14 11:31:53 CDT 2006

There was a very good book published recently about the problems these 
girls experienced:

Radium Girls, Women and Industril Health Reform, 1910-1935 by Claudia 
Clark
, published 1997 by University of North Carolina Press.

It can be purchased through Barnes & Nobles.  Not much detail on dose but 
a lot on their experiences.

Alex

Alex J. Grosso, Jr.
Health Physicist
grosso at u.washington.edu
bigboys at whidbey.net
206-616-5564

"Laughter is the Best Weapon" - Roger Rabbit

On Wed, 14 Jun 2006, parthasarathy k s wrote:

> Prof R D Evans published a review of the doses to those who had significant intakes of radium as dial painters (I can locate the paper; it was in the Health Physics journal). The doses were of the order of hundreds of rads that too contributed  by alpha particles from the decay products of radium;a few must have received kilorads! The poineering work done in USA by two groups in Argonne and Massachusettes laid the foundation stone for internal dosimetry of bone seeking radionuclides such as Strontium-90, plutonium-239 etc.
>
> The work is often projected to indicate evidence against LNT concept.
>
> Can any one in the list provide more about the human side of the tragic experience of those who suffered radium poisoning. It appears that the first victim sued the employer, got compensation; most of it went to the lawyers.(It was probably the first case of this kind).
>
> I am keen to get details about how many victims were part of the internal contamination study which went on  for decades. Can any one provide appropriate references?
>
> Regards
> K.S.Parthasarathy Ph.D
> Raja Ramanna Fellow
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>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: John Jacobus <crispy_bird at yahoo.com>
> To: Susan Gawarecki <loc at icx.net>; RADSAFE <radsafe at radlab.nl>
> Sent: Wednesday, 14 June, 2006 6:30:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Last surviving Radium Girl celebrates 100th birthday
>
>
> Interesting.  I see no information on dosage, which
> makes this just an interesting story.
>
> --- Susan Gawarecki <loc at icx.net> wrote:
>
>> Last surviving Radium Girl celebrates 100th birthday
>>
> http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/06/01/last_surviving_radium_girl_celebrates_100th_birthday/
>> By Robyn Adams, Republican-American  |  June 1, 2006
>>
>> WATERBURY, Conn. --Mae Keane, the last surviving
>> Radium Girl, was all
>> aglow as she celebrated her 100th birthday recently.
>>
>> At age 18, fresh out of Wilby High School, she went
>> to work at the old
>> Waterbury Clock Co. factory off Cherry Street. She
>> was among the women
>> dubbed the Radium Girls after the greenish radium
>> paint used to make the
>> watch dials glow in the dark. It later caused
>> significant health
>> problems for many. They were encouraged to apply the
>> paint by moistening
>> the bristles on their lips before dipping the brush
>> into the paint.
>>
>> Though Keane worked at the clock factory just a
>> couple of months, she
>> lost her teeth and suffered skin and eye problems.
>> Doctors could never
>> pinpoint the exact cause of her ailments. "I don't
>> think the bosses even
>> knew it was poison," she said. "The foreman would
>> tell us it was very
>> expensive, and to be careful. We had no idea. But
>> when they did find
>> out, they hid it."
>>
>> Radium is a naturally occurring radioactive material
>> used from the 1900s
>> to the 1940s to paint glow-in-the-dark dials on
>> clocks, watches and
>> aircraft navigation equipment. Significant exposure
>> can cause leukemia
>> and anemia and has been linked to cancer of the
>> bones, mouth and sinus
>> cavities.
>>
>> About 20 Waterbury Clock factory workers, mostly
>> women hired because of
>> their smaller fingers, died from exposure to radium
>> in 1927.
>>
>> "The girls (sneaked) the radium to paint their toe
>> nails to make them
>> glow," Keane said.
>>
>> Perhaps it is her sense of humor that has helped her
>> live a long life.
>> The only prescription medication she takes is to
>> control her blood
>> pressure, though she was diagnosed with colon cancer
>> at one point. "The
>> doctor wanted to give me chemotherapy," Keane said.
>> "I told him 'no.' I
>> wanted radium." After five weeks of radiation, she
>> was on the mend.
>>
>> Keane isn't quite sure what led her to work at the
>> clock factory. The
>> pay was $18 a week for a 40-hour work week, and the
>> women earned an
>> average of six cents for each dial painted.
>>
>> In 2004, Keane and the late Josephine Lamb, another
>> Radium Girl, were
>> featured in a dance and video production that
>> explored the work done by
>> young women in clock factories. Josephine Lamb was
>> bedridden for 50
>> years from the radium poisoning. She died in 1974 at
>> the age of 79.
>>
>> Keane, a Red Sox fan, laughs when asked about her
>> secret to longevity.
>> "I'm lazy," Keane said, adding she never smoked,
>> loved to walk and
>> dance, and enjoys caramel candy, chocolate and an
>> occasional apricot
>> sour or Bailey's Irish Cream. "I didn't get old
>> until I was 98," she said.
>>
>>
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>
>
> +++++++++++++++++++
> "You get a lot more authority when the workforce doesn't think it's amateur hour on the top floor."
> GEN. MICHAEL V. HAYDEN, President Bush's nominee for C.I.A. director.
>
> -- John
> John Jacobus, MS
> Certified Health Physicist
> e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com
>
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