The disease was the main reason for litigation against the United States Radium Corporation by the Radium Girls. Symptoms were present in the mouth due to use of the lips and tongue to keep the radium-paint paintbrushes properly shaped. Theodor Blum, in 1924, who described an unusual mandibular osteomyelitis in a dial painter, naming it "radium jaw". The first written reference to the disease was by a dentist, Dr. Martland in 1924 to be symptomatic of radium paint ingestion, after many female workers from various radium paint companies reported similar dental and mandibular pain. The disease was determined by pathologist Dr. Ī bottle of Radithor at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in New Mexico, United States Radium was also used in some medical practices during the 20th century.
Used until the early 1970s, radium was found in some consumer paints, dials on clocks and some industrial applications. History Īt the start of the 20th century, many believed that radium had beneficial health properties and was often added to consumer products such as toothpaste, hair creams, and even food. Alpha particles emitted by the radium leads to bone necrosis and bone cancer. This is significant, because while calcium strengthens bone structures, radium degrades the quality of said bone structure. Radium can cause fatal injuries due to radium and calcium sharing similar chemistry causing the body to mistake the radioactive metal for calcium and incorporate it into bone tissue. Once the symptoms of radium jaw take effect, there is nothing that can be done to reduce the chance of death from radiation poisoning. Symptoms also include soreness throughout the body, significant decrease in body weight and loss of teeth. The symptoms are necrosis of the mandible (lower jawbone) and the maxilla (upper jaw), constant bleeding of the gums, and (usually) after some time, severe distortion due to bone tumors and porosity of the lower jaw. The condition is similar to phossy jaw, an osteoporotic and osteonecrotic illness of matchgirls, brought on by phosphorus ingestion and absorption. A patent medicine is an over the counter (non-prescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name and claimed to be effective against some disorders and varying symptoms. It also affected those consuming radium-laden patent medicines. Radium jaw, or radium necrosis, is a historic occupational disease brought on by the ingestion and subsequent absorption of radium into the bones of radium dial painters. The American journal of roentgenology, radium therapy and nuclear medicine (1906)
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