[ RadSafe ] Dose to Mae Keane may be kilorads!

Wed Jun 14 12:47:56 CDT 2006

Actually, the summary of the scientific studies is Bob Rowland's "Radium
in Humans" pub'd by ANL, home of the terminated and suppressed Center
for Human Radiobiology following Robley Evans' retirement in 1970.  See
my msg to the group:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/9907/msg00152.html 

This book lists every radium dial painter case followed by the CHR,
suppressed by DOE starting after the 1983 Health Physics Supplement 1
issue on the 1981 Lake Geneva WI int'l conference that confirmed the
lack of adverse effects in studies in the U.S. and other countries.

(If you want to use our links to sources, change "cnts.wpi.edu" to
"www.radscihealth.org" in the urls.)

See also a summary by Bob Rowland (with a very interesting plot of all
the dial painters by systemic intake vs. year of entry into the dial
painting industry) at:
http://www.rerowland.com/dial_painters.htm 

Regards, Jim Muckerheide

> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl 
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of Alex J. 
> Grosso, Health Physicist
> Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 12:32 PM
> To: parthasarathy k s
> Cc: RADSAFE; Susan Gawarecki
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Dose to Mae Keane may be kilorads!
> 
> 
> 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
> > Strategic Planning Group
> > Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences
> > Department of Atomic Energy
> > GN 18, Vikram Sarabhai Bhavan
> > Mumbai 400094, INDIA
> >
> > 91+22 25555327 (O)
> > 91+22 2 5486081(O)
> > 91+22 2 7706048(R)
> > 9869016206 ( Mobile)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- 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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> >>
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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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