Management and cleanup of legacy radium-contaminated sites in the United States

The hazards associated with radium-containing materials were largely unknown when they were first
introduced into household and other products over a century ago. Radium was also originally thought
to have beneficial health properties, leading to confusion amongst the public about the safety of
radium in household products and food items. When the adverse health effects associated with radium
were discovered and became well known, radium products became unpopular and were prohibited in some
countries. In the United States, after the hazards associated with radium became known, radium was
first regulated by individual states in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Later, the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) was given a role in the regulation of discrete sources of radium with
the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. After passage of the Act, the NRC began to
systematically identify sites around the country where radium was used and reached out to site
owners to determine wh...

Source: Journal of Radiological Protection - August 23, 2021 Category: Physics Authors: C Grossman, C Barr, D King, C McKenney, S Koenick and R Chang Source Type: research