RADIUM POISONING SKIN

Exposure can also occur by being near radioactive chemicals at concentrations that are found at hazardous waste sites or industrial accidents.

RADIUM POISONING SKIN

You may be exposed to it in the environment by breathing, eating, or drinking substances containing the radioactive chemical or from skin contact with it. You can be exposed to a radioactive chemical when you come into contact with that chemical alone or with a substance that contains it. This emission, which is also called a release, does not always lead to exposure. When a radioactive chemical is released from a large area, such as an industrial plant, or from a container, such as a drum or bottle, it enters the environment as a radioactive chemical emission. The information is important for you because radium may cause harmful health effects and because these sites are potential or actual sources of human exposure to radium.

As EPA evaluates more sites, the number of sites at which radium is found above background levels may change. However, we do not know how many of the 1,177 NPL sites have been evaluated for radium. Radium has been found above background levels at 18 of these sites. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 1,177 sites on its National Priorities List (NPL). This Statement was prepared to give you information about radium and to emphasize the human health effects that may result from exposure to it. For more information, call the ATSDR Information Center at 1-80. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present. This information is important because this substance may harm you. A shorter version, the ToxFAQs™, is also available. Statements about hazardous substances and their health effects. This Public Health Statement is the summary chapter from the Toxicological Profile for radium.

What recommendations has the federal government made to protect human health?.

Is there a medical test to determine whether I have been exposed to radium?.

What levels of exposure have resulted in harmful health effects?.

How can radium enter and leave my body?.

Radium poisoning