OCCUPATIONAL POISONING IN MANUFACTURE OF LUMINOUS WATCH DIALS

Abstract

SPECIAL SYMPTOMATOLOGY The Anemias. —The deposits in the bones, because of the great insolubility of the sulphates of radioactive substances, act as fixed deposits from which they continually emit irritative rays that constantly bombard, day after day, month after month, and year after year, the adjacent blood-forming centers, producing in time a severe and often fatal anemia. The nature of the radiation is very important. Approximately 95 per cent of the rays coming from these bone deposits are alpha; the remaining 5 per cent consist of beta and gamma rays. The alpha rays, which consist of the nuclei of helium atoms containing two positive charges (He + +), are ejected from the radioactive substances with great force, attaining an initial volicity on leaving the extranuclear electronic field ranging from one-twentieth to about one-twelfth that of light. They represent the fastest mass occupying objects yet known. Lind² says,