Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
York yielded excess numbers of thyroid adenomas, leukemia, and brain cancer, but
no excess thyroid cancer.
A third example of information obtained on radiation effects frommedical expo-
sures is derived from the study of some 14,000 patients treated during the 1930s
and early 1940s in Great Britain for ankylosing spondylitis. Large doses of X rays
were given to the spine to relieve pain caused by this disease. Retrospective exam-
ination of patients' records revealed a small, but statistically significant, increase
in leukemia as the cause of death. Doses to the active bone marrow and organs in
the treatment field were of the order of several Gy. In addition to uncertainties in
the dosimetry, the study lacks a satisfactory cohort of controls—patients having the
same disease and receiving similar treatment, but without X-ray therapy.
Radium-Dial Painters
Radioluminescent paints, made by combining radium with fluorescent materials,
were popular in the 1920s. They were used in the production of watch and clock di-
als, gun sights, and other applications. The industry was widespread. A hundred or
more firms purchased the paint, which was applied, almost exclusively by women,
to the dials with small brushes. One company reported turning out about 4,300 di-
als each day. Figure 13.6 shows a typical dial-painting studio of the time in Illinois.
Each painter had her materials on the desk top in front of her, and the finished
dials can be seen placed to the right of where she sat.
Fig. 13.6
A studio with radium dial painters,
cir.
1920s. The
proximity of the painted dials at the workers' sides and the
supply of radium paint on their desks added an external
gamma dose to the internal dose from the ingested radium.
[From R. E. Rowland,
Radium in Humans, a Review of U.S.
Studies
, Report ANL/ER-3, Argonne National Laboratory,
Argonne, IL (1994).]
