







Radium 226 Radiation

The UK Daily Mail(1) reported recently that a sociology professor at St. Louis Community College named Lisa Martino-Taylor claims that the United States Army exposed the unwitting populace of St. Louis to radioactive particles of radium 226 during chemical warfare experiments on two occasions, in 1953 to 1954 and 1963 to 1965.She claims, based on extensive research of declassified documents, that the particles were mixed in with harmless zinc cadmium sulfide that was sprayed from dispensers mounted on buildings and vehicles. The exposure took place primarily in low-income, and minority neighborhoods, and local politicians were not informed of what was going on. The cover story was that the Army was testing a smoke screen to guard against a Soviet attack.

So far the Army has only admitted that a “fluorescent substance” was added but will not say whether it was radioactive. The revelation has caused both Missouri senators, Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt, to demand answers from the Army. It is unknown as of this writing whether the Army ever followed up on the health effects of the radium 226. A housing project where the spraying took place was destroyed in 1972.

Radium 226, according to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Agency(2), is a substance found in nature and is considered highly radioactive. Pierre and Marie Curie(3) discovered the isotope when they found that it was created by the radioactive decay of uranium 238.

The isotope was used in a number of consumer products in the early 20th century, including toothpaste, paint, and watch dials because of its fluorescent properties. However, the practice was largely discontinued when the health effects of long-term exposure to radiation(4) became better understood. Ironically, Marie Curie died of long-term exposure to radium and other radioactive substances during the course of her research and work with radiological instruments during World War I. The use of radium 226 is now heavily restricted to such applications as cancer research.