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    "localId": "75722288",
    "label": "Report, January 23, 1928",
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    "id": "75722288",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, January 23, 1928",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75722288",
    "collections": [
        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/SLC/Radium/SLC_0001193_Page_2.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "-2-\nThe factors of distance and screening do not come into consideration here as\nwhen the radium is external to the body. Gaseous radioactive substances, like\nradium emanation, when taken into the lungs with inhaled air, are rather quickly\neliminated.\nThere is no question that prolonged exposure to the radiation of a\nsufficiently large quantity of radium at close range and not heavily screened\nis capable of producing most marked physiological effects on human beings.\nSkillfully handled, such radiation has for 20 years or more been employed\ntherapeutically for the destruction of malignant growths, with resultant benefit\nto mankind. On the other hand, it seems well established that greater or less\nharm may result from incautious or prolonged exposure of the healthy body to\nmore or less strong radium radiation. Finger burns of those handling tubes\nof\nhighly concentrated radium are the commonest evidence in this direction.\nThere now remains the further debatable question: Is indefinitely pro-\nlonged exposure to radiation of radioactive substances harmful, however slight\nthe radiation? The evidence readily available is ample to furnish a conclus-\nive answer to this question.\nThorium is a radioactive element which is extensively used in the manu-\nfacture of gas mantles. The workers in thorium plants and in mantle factories,\nthough constantly exposed to the radiation of thorium and of mesothorium (which\nlatter closely resembles radium), have never been known to suffer ill effects from\nsuch exposure.\nI may cite a case with which I am intimately familiar. Lindsay Light\nCo. (of which company I am vice-president) has operated a plant making thorium\nnitrate for 14 years. During the past 13 years two men, Stabneau, Supt. and\nFlynn, foreman, have been steadily employed at this plant. Both these men\nhave\nbeen exceptionally free from all kinds of illness and both today are in excell-\nent health.\nIn the course of 13 years they have handled and been exposed\nto an amount of mesothorium equal in radio activity to about 14,000 milligrams\nof radium.\nIn their mantle factory, Lindsay Light Co., have had for years 100 or\nmore girls employed in making mantles. All such mentles are radio active,\nyet I have never known of any ill effect from exposure to radiation in that\nfactory.\nMillions of people wear watches with luminous dials, without the least\nharm.\nOn the other hand, the beneficial effect of drinking and bathing in the\nwaters of certain famous Spas has been credited to the fact that such waters\ncontain appreciable amounts of radium (see Government bulletins on the radio\nactivity of the waters of Hot Springs, Ark., for example). Some physicians\nadvocate the use of water to which radio active substances have been artific-\nially added. I am not prepared to say from direct knowledge what the result\nto the patient has been; but I have not heard of any ill effect and much\nbenefit has been claimed.\nIf one wishes to go to extremes, it can be said with absolute accuracy\nthat everyone in the workd is at all times (and no doubt has always been, for\nthat matter) subject to faint radio active exposure. Accurate researches, first"
}