22 | Today in Science: Historical Perspectives on Radiation

Hello YANSS podcast fans. We are really excited to bring you a new today in science episode on radiation! We wanted to do something a little different by adding a historical perspective to our topics.

Virginia starts off the episode talking about the radium girls. Starting in 1916, young women were employed in the United States Radium Corporation to paint detailed 'glow in the dark' watches for soldiers. They pointed the paint brushes with their lips, and ingested radium in the process. The radium girls began to experience horrible side effects, including jaw necrosis, cancer, and anemia. This spurred lawsuits against the corporation, and eventually set in motion protections for employees against workplace harm.

Frances discusses the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, arguably one of the worst in history. After tons of radioactive particles settled into the landscape, it changed the ecology of the region. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was created that prevented people from living in the most dangerous area. However, the organisms there still survived. They found that mutation rates in the region skyrocketed, amongst many different types of organisms (bacteria, plants, and animals). But, there was also evidence of adaption to the new landscape.

Hope you enjoy the episode!

Sources:

Virginia:

Radium Girls: The dark times of luminous watches

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/radium-girls-radioactive-paint/index.html

The Legacy of the Radium Girls

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/2645827

Radium Girls

https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/full/10.1148/radiol.14141352

Toxicological profile for radium

https://permanent.fdlp.gov/gpo31610/tp144.pdf

National Research Council (US) Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiations. Health Risks of Radon and Other Internally Deposited Alpha-Emitters: Beir IV. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988. 4, Radium

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK218126/#ddd00101

Frances:

What is Radiation?

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/what_is.html

Radiation Historical Background

https://www.britannica.com/science/radiation/Historical-background

The history of radiation use in medicine

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0741521410017271

Strong effects of ionizing radiation from Chernobyl on mutation rates

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep08363?origin=ppub

Where the wild things are: influence of radiation on the distribution of four

mammalian species within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.1227?casa_token=E5nFlwmxZNwAAAAA%3AjKj86fcPgB5k_q6ewY7L5l3oIx6IG3Q-A8REnDMPUCLfmeK4jnhvBDL6VgZHqGmOJd4IuHtpthQH5hrZ

Resistance of Feather-Associated Bacteria to Intermediate Levels of Ionizing Radiation near Chernobyl

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep22969

Radiation exposure in the remote period after the Chernobyl accident caused oxidative stress and genetic effects in Scots pine populations

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep43009/