https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7184-3043
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Abstract
Purpose
This paper reviews the history of the radium dial workers in the United States, summarizes the scientific progress made since the last evaluation in the early 1990s, and discusses current progress in updating the epidemiologic cohort and applying new dosimetric models for radiation risk assessment.
Background
The discoveries of radiation and radioactivity led quickly to medical and commercial applications at the turn of the 20th century, including the development of radioluminescent paint, made by combining radium with phosphorescent material and adhesive. Workers involved with the painting of dials and instruments included painters, handlers, ancillary workers, and chemists who fabricated the paint. Dial painters were primarily women and, prior to the mid to late 1920s, would use their lips to give the brush a fine point, resulting in high intakes of radium. The tragic experience of the dial painters had a significant impact on industrial safety standards, including protection measures taken during the Manhattan Project. The dial workers study has formed the basis for radiation protection standards for intakes of radionuclides by workers and the public.
Epidemiologic approach
The mortality experience of 3,276 radium dial painters and handlers employed between 1913 and 1949 is being determined through 2019. The last epidemiologic follow-up was 30 years ago when most of these workers were still alive. Nearly 65% were born before 1920, 37.5% were teenagers when first hired, and nearly 50% were hired before 1930 when the habit of placing brushes in mouths essentially stopped. Comprehensive dose reconstruction techniques are being applied to estimate organ doses for each worker related to the intake of 226Ra, 228Ra, and associated photon exposures. Time dependent dose-response analyses will estimate lifetime risks for specific causes of death.
Discussion
The study of radium dial workers is part of the Million Person Study of low-dose health effects that is designed to evaluate radiation risks among healthy American workers and veterans. Despite being one of the most important and influential radiation effects studies ever conducted, shifting programmatic responsibilities and declining funding led to the termination of the radium program of studies in the early 1990s. Renewed interest and opportunity have arisen. With scientific progress made in dosimetric methodology and models, the ability to perform a study over the entire life span, and the potential applicability to other scenarios such as medicine, environmental contamination and space exploration, the radium dial workers have once again come to the forefront.
Acknowledgements
We are tremendously indebted to innumerable individuals, including the scientists, physicians, epidemiologists, statisticians, technicians, librarians, etc. who have studied these workers and who have published and otherwise preserved associated information since the 1920s. We also acknowledge that in many cases, radium dial workers suffered tremendously and died, and that this suffering and loss was also acutely felt by their loved ones and their communities.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Nicole E. Martinez
Nicole E. Martinez, Certified Health Physicist, is an Associate Professor at Clemson University in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. She also holds a Joint Faculty Appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) within the Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge (CRPK). Her current research focuses on dosimetric modeling and the behavior and effects of radiological contaminants in the environment. She serves on ICRP Committee 4, Application of the Commission’s Recommendations.
Derek W. Jokisch
Derek W. Jokisch is Professor of Physics and Chair of the Department of Physics and Engineering at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. He holds a Joint Faculty Appointment at ORNL within the CRPK and is a member of ICRP Committee 2 on Doses from Radiation Exposure and is a member of the US Scientific Review Group for the Department of Energy’s Russian Health Studies program.
Lawrence T. Dauer
Lawrence T. Dauer is Associate Attending Physicist specializing in radiation protection at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the Departments of Medical Physics and Radiology. He is a Council and Board member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) and served as a member of the ICRP Committee 3, Protection in Medicine.
Keith F. Eckerman
Keith F. Eckerman retired in 2013 from ORNL and is an emeritus member of the NCRP and ICRP Committee 2. He served on ICRP Committee 2 for over 20 years and chaired their task group on dose calculations.
Ronald E. Goans
Ron Goans has worked in the field of nuclear physics and radiation effects since 1966. He received his PhD in radiation physics from the University of Tennessee in 1974, his MD from the George Washington University School of Medicine in 1983, and the MPH from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2000. He is currently Senior Medical Advisor with MJW Corporation and Senior Medical/Scientific Advisor with the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS).
John D. Brockman
John D. Brockman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri. He researches problems in diverse fields that benefit from radio-analytical techniques. Currently, his research group is working on problems in pre-and post-detonation nuclear forensic analysis, trace element epidemiology, and nuclear engineering.
Sergey Y. Tolmachev
Sergey Y. Tolmachev is a Research Professor in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Washington State University, where he directs the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries and the associated National Human Radiobiology Tissue Repository. He has over 20 years of experience in the development of analytical methods and in actinide analyses of environmental and biological samples. Dr. Tolmachev is currently a Council member of the NCRP and is a vice-chair of NCRP Scientific Committee 6-12 ‘Development of Models for Brain Dosimetry for Internally Deposited Radionuclides’.
Maia Avtandilashvili
Maia Avtandilashvili is an Assistant Research Professor at the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries (USTUR), College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Washington State University. She has over 15 years of experience in internal radiation dosimetry and biokinetic modeling of actinides. Dr. Avtandilashvili serves on NCRP scientific committee (SC) 6-12 ‘Development of Models for Brain Dosimetry for Internally Deposited Radionuclides’ and is a member of the European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) Working Group 7 on Internal Dosimetry.
Michael T. Mumma
Michael T. Mumma is the Director of Information Technology at the International Epidemiology Institute and the International Epidemiology Field Station for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He has over 20 years of experience in data analysis and conducting epidemiologic investigations. He has published on methodological topics, including geocoding and comprehensive radiation exposure assessment, and is currently developing methods to determine socioeconomic status based on residential history.
John D. Boice
John D. Boice is past President of the NCRP and Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University. He is an international authority on radiation effects and served on the Main Commission of the ICRP and on the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. He directs the Million Person Study of Low-Dose Health Effects.
Richard W. Leggett
Rich Leggett is a research scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division at ORNL. His main research interest is in physiological systems modeling, with primary applications to the biokinetics and dosimetry of radionuclides and radiation risk analysis. He is a member of ICRP Committee 2 and the ICRP Task Group on Internal Dosimetry.