Radium Man

The bulk of the adventure stories took a far more serious approach. In Strange Adventures 50 Quly 1955) a visitor from outer space— Radium Man—steals a massive amount of American radium but has to leave it behind because it affected the space-drive mechanism of his rocket ship. In Showcase 23 (1960), Green Lantern stops an invisible villain from detonating an atomic bomb. Four years later, the Flash (May 1964) drew on his super speed to keep a nuclear bomb from obliterating a city. In 1965, Superman s hands became coated with invisible chemicals so that one clap would trigger an atomic explosion. In Adventure Comics 442 (December 1975), Aquaman barely stopped a... 

Cover of Dr. Radium Man of Science 1 (Slave Labor Graphics, October 1992). Beginning in the 1990s, a number of smaller comic book companies began to introduce nuclear-themed titles. Most of these do not have any authentic nuclear links, such as Dr. Radium Man of Science, which contains only an odd nuclear allegory. 

Cover of Dr. Radium Man of Science 1 (Slave Labor Graphics,... 

It is now accepted as a proved fact that the element radium decomposes with the formation of other elements, the simplest of which is apparently helium, and the experiments of Sir William Ramsay have indicated that the energy liberated by radium can effect the transmutation of other elements into one another but in such cases man can only watch the changes that go on, and cannot control or vary them. But in the building-up process that has apparently now been discovered, the energy for the change is artificially supplied and controlled, and the changes are thus of a different order from the radioactive decompositions of a decaying element. 

Yang HS, Nozaki Y, Sakai H, et al. 1986. Natural and man made radionuclide distributions in Northwest Pacific deep sea sediments Rates of sedimentation, bioturbation and radium-226 migration. Geochem J 20 29-40. 

I was certainly privileged, for I saw with my own eyes the birth of radium. Pierre Curie, who was my teacher, rendered me the incomparable honor of according me his confidence and friendship. I saw Mme. Curie work like a man at the difficult treatments of great quantities of pitchblende. I saw the first fractionations of the bromides of barium-radium. I saw the radium-bearing crystals shine in the dark before the radium spectrum could be observed in them. Every Sunday we used to go with Langevin, Perrin, Debierne,... 

The significance of radioactivity in water, food, and air has been under particular scrutiny since the advent of nuclear bomb tests and their accompanying radioactive fallout. This scrutiny has resulted in much documented data gathered over the past few decades on the health characteristics of man under various environmental conditions, such as the Denver populace who are subjected to more intense cosmic ray irradiations than the New York City populace the radium dial workers of the 1920,s who have provided data on life spans, general health, and causes of death population s drinking water with varying radium contents persons living... 

Radium was also used as a "rejuvenating" tonic in the 1920s and was available to the general public in bottled water. Gettler and Norris (1933) described a case of a 52-year-old man who drank about 1,400 bottles of "Radithor", containing radium at 2 pg/60 ml bottle, over a 5-year period (total dose approximately 2,800 pCi or 56 pCi/kg or 2,074 kBq/kg for a 50-kg man). The cause of death was stated to be a combination of necrosis of the jaw, abscess of the brain, secondary anemia and terminal bronchopneumonia. However, it is important to note that each of these effects can also be attributed to other etiologies. 

Finkel AJ, Miller CE, Hasterlik RJ. 1969a. Radium-induced malignant tumors in man. In Mays CW, Jee WS, Lloyd RD, et al., eds. Delayed effects of bone-seeking radionuclides (Sun Valley Symposium, September 12-14, 1967). Salt Lake City, UT University of Utah Press, 195-225. 

Miller CE, Finkel AJ. 1968. Radium retention in man after multiple injections The power function re-evaluated. Am J Roentgenol Radium Ther Nucl Med 103 871-80. 

Harrison GE, Carr TEF, Sutton A. 1967. Distribution of radioactive calcium, strontium, barium and radium following intravenous injection into a healthy man. Int J Radiat Biol 13 235-247. 

According to Styron et al., (1979) for a realistic assessment of the magnitude of release of radionuclides, special attention needs to be given to lead-210 and polonium-210 since they appear to have a large potential for significant environmental impact and have not received sufficient attention in trace-element studies for power plants. Another potentially important parameter in determining radiation exposure to man centres on disposal and utilization of coal ash and refuse. Lee et al., (1977) have suggested that emanation of radon-222 from ash disposal ponds will be the most serious radionuclide problem associated with increased use of coal. A potential hazard can be associated with the use of fly ash in cement and concrete blocks and in roadway construction. The radium-226 in these concrete blocks used for home construction may constitute an important source of radon-222 dose to the public. 

---