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The History of Nuclear Medicine
Published in Michael Ljungberg, Handbook of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging for Physicists, 2022
Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867–1934) and her husband Pierre Curie (1859–1906) discovered the same type of penetrating radiation from uranium and named the phenomenon radioactivity in 1897. Furthermore, the Curie couple discovered the elements polonium (Z=84) and radium (Z=88), where 226Ra for many years became a frequently used ‘panacea’ for various ailments, both in vivo and in vitro. Almost directly after these incredible discoveries, radiation from different constructed X-ray tubes and the gamma radiation from 226Ra were used for various medical applications as well as for enjoyment for some decades. In medicine, radium sources were used for brachytherapy or teletherapy for almost the entire twentieth century. Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901, while Becquerel and the Curie couple were the Nobel Laureates in Physics in 1903 (Figure 1.1). Other Nobel Laureates with special relevance to nuclear medicine are listed in Table 1.1.
Radiation Hormesis in Cancer
Published in T. D. Luckey, Radiation Hormesis, 2020
Polonium has 27 isotopes, all radioactive. Pitchblende, from which it was first isolated by Pierre and Marie Curie, contains only 1 g/25,000 tons. Naturally occurring isotopes contribute a major amount of high energy alpha rays in the three primordial radionuclide progenies (Table 6.7). The alpha rays from polonium decay have 10 to 100 times more energy than beta rays from lead in the same series. The temperature of a capsule containing 500 mg 210Po becomes hot, over 500°C.977 This heat is an attractive source of power for satelites. Textile and paper manufacturing industries use 210Po to reduce static.
The Historical Experience*
Published in Vilma R. Hunt, Kathleen Lucas-Wallace, Jeanne M. Manson, Work and the Health of Women, 2020
Vilma R. Hunt, Kathleen Lucas-Wallace, Jeanne M. Manson
Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre discovered polonium and radium in 1898, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize. X-rays had also been discovered and similarly recognized. There was an immediate development of new medical, scientific, and industrial uses with a proliferation of inventions using X-rays and radioisotopes in many parts of the world. Almost immediately adverse effects of X-rays on the health of physicists, chemists, and radiologists were recognized. For example, within 3 months of Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays, Thomas Edison in the U.S. experienced conjunctivitis from X-ray exposure. More serious skin burns and ulceration became evident within a year and malignancies were being documented by 1911. The victims were research workers, radiologists, laboratory assistants, technicians, and nurses. By the time radiography was coming into industrial use, the need for protection by shielding and controlled exposure had been recognized. However, the protection itself was slow in coming and not universally used, even though the efficacy of lead shielding was known from before 1903. The disfigurement, chronic illness, severe anemias, and terminal cancers of health professionals and scientists were in marked contrast to the expectant public view that X-rays provided remarkable diagnoses and miraculous cures.16
Cohort profile – MSK radiation workers: a feasibility study to establish a deceased worker sub-cohort as part of a multicenter medical radiation worker component in the million person study of low-dose radiation health effects
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2022
Lawrence T. Dauer, Meghan Woods, Daniel Miodownik, Brian Serencsits, Brian Quinn, Michael Bellamy, Craig Yoder, Xiaolin Liang, John D. Boice, Jonine Bernstein
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) consisting of Memorial Hospital (MH) and the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) laboratories has a unique history with regard to the use of radiation for the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of cancer and allied diseases. The initial New York Cancer Hospital (NYCH) was founded in 1884, barely a decade before the seminal burst of discoveries in radiation. Wilhelm Roentgen discovers ‘X-Rays’ in 1895 and a week later makes his famous first X-ray images of the hand of Mrs. Roentgen (Anna Bertha Ludwig) wearing her wedding ring (Pietzch 2018). Henri Becquerel subsequently discovered ‘radioactivity’ and radioactive materials in 1896 and this was quickly followed by the discovery of ‘polonium’ and ‘radium’ by the Curies (Nobel 2018). Immediate attention is given to the application of these rays and materials to the healing arts. Research and use began almost immediately across the world, even in New York where Thomas Edison demonstrated fluoroscopes in 1896 (King 2012). As early as 1902, the NYCH employed X-Rays and X-ray therapies, practices that continue through the present. Also, as early as 1902, several adverse biological effects began to be identified in some medical radiation workers, both short-term (e.g. reddening of the skin, dermatitis, skin ulceration, epilation, eye irritation) and longer-term (e.g. skin cancers, cataracts, and other cancers) (Linet et al. 2010).
Radiation protection biology then and now
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2019
Andrzej Wojcik, Mats Harms-Ringdahl
The ICRP did not meet between 1937 and 1950 (Clarke and Valentin 2009), so no recommendations on internal exposure limits were given until 5 years after World War II. In its 1950 recommendations, the ICRP states that the commission ‘is not in a position to make firm recommendations regarding the maximum permissible amounts of radioactive isotopes that may be taken into, or retained in the body’ (ICRP 1951). Nevertheless, based on maximum permissible exposures to radioactive isotopes for occupational workers used in U.S.A., Canada and U.K., exposure limits were given for radium, plutonium, strontium, polonium, tritium, carbon 14, sodium 15, phosphor 32, cobalt 60, and iodine 131 (ICRP 1951). Although the ICRP does not specify the source of data for the limits, it can be assumed that they, at least partly, came from the extensive animal experiments (Haley et al. 2011). However, it must be mentioned that some of the knowledge must also have come from human radiation experiments which were commonly carried out between the years 1944 and 1974 in U.S.A. and other nuclear program states (Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, 1995). Medical patients, prisoners, soldiers and children were intentionally exposed to radiation and isotopes, often without their knowledge or consent. Human experiments were not unique to the radiation field but were in line with the ethical standards (or the lack of such) at the time. Also, the process of acquiring scientific results from the Life Span Study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors during the first 20 years of the program carried out by the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) was criticized for low ethical standards in that survivors were treated as Guinea pigs (Beatty 1993).
An examination of radon awareness, risk communication, and radon risk reduction in a Hispanic community
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2020
Chrysan Cronin, Michael Trush, William Bellamy, James Russell, Paul Locke
Radon-222 is a naturally occurring radioactive decay product of uranium-228 which is present in the earth’s crust. It is a direct decay product of radium-226. Radon-222 has a half-life of 3.82 days. Because radon is a gas it can move out of the rock to both water and to ambient air where it can become trapped inside homes and other buildings, rising to levels that are unsafe (Darby et al. 2005; ICRP 2014). Although radon is an inert gas, a large proportion of radon progeny will deposit in the lungs and are not exhaled. Two of these progeny, polonium-218 and polonium-214 emit alpha particles, which disrupt cellular DNA and can lead to the development of lung cancer (Harley et al. 2008). In 1992, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified radon as a carcinogen (EPA Citizen’s Guide 1992) due in large part to evidence set forth by the BEIR VI committee report. According to the report, epidemiological evidence from studies in the general population supported previous results presented in the BEIR IV report that showed that exposure to radon was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. In addition, new information that showed the molecular and cellular basis of carcinogenesis by alpha particles was considered by the committee. The committee concluded that there were 15,400–21,800 excess lung cancer deaths occurring each year in the US in never smokers due to radon exposure (BEIR VI 1992). Annually, exposure to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking and is associated with over 21,000 deaths in the US (Lantz, Mendez and Philbert 2013; NCI 2018). The average indoor and outdoor air levels of radon in the US are approximately 1.3 pCi/L (48.1 Bq/m3) and 0.4 pCi/L (14.8 Bq/m) respectively (EPA Citizen’s Guide 1992).