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88. RadiumName: Radium
Pure metallic radium is brilliant white when freshly prepared, but blackens on exposure to air, probably due to formation of the nitride. It exhibits luminescence, as do its salts; it decomposes in water and is somewhat more volatile than barium. Radium imparts a carmine red colour to a flame. Radium emits α, β, and γ rays and when mixed with beryllium produces neutrons. Inhalation, injection, or body exposure to radium can cause cancer and other body disorders. alkaline earth metal, white but tarnishes black upon exposure to air, luminesces, decomposes in water, emits radioactive radon gas, disintegrated radioactively until it reaches stable lead, radiological hazard, α, β, and γ emitter, exposure to radium can cause cancer and other body disorders. Radium is over a million times more radioactive than the same mass of uranium. Radium (Latin radius, ray) was discovered by Marie Curie and her husband Pierre in 1898 in pitchblende/uraninite from North Bohemia. While studying pitchblende the Curies removed uranium from it and found that the remaining material was still radioactive. They then separated out a radioactive mixture mostly consisting of barium which gave a brilliant red flame color and spectral lines which had never been documented before. In 1902 radium was isolated into its pure metal by Curie and Andre Debierne through the electrolysis of a pure radium chloride solution by using a mercury cathode and distilling in an atmosphere of hydrogen gas. During the 1930s it was found that worker exposure to radium by handling luminescent paints caused serious health effects which included sores, anemia and bone cancer. This use of radium was stopped soon afterward. Handling of radium has since been blamed for Marie Curie's premature death. Radium is extremely radioactive and its decay product, radon is a radioactive gas. Since Ra is closely related to calcium, it has the potential to cause great harm by substituting it in bone. Inhalation, injection, ingestion or body exposure to radium can cause cancer and other body disorders. Stored radium should be ventilated to prevent build-up of radon. Emitted energy from the decay of radium ionizes gases, affects photographic plates, causes sores on the skin, and produces many other dramatic effects. Quick links
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