Salt Lake Telegram | 1932-04-11 | Page 6 | Daily Health Service

I Daily Health Service Radium Use b by Quacks Dangerous By D DR MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Med ical Association and of the Health Magazine 1 It Il has long since been recognized that hat radium is of special virtue in the control of oC cancer Today early diagnosis diagnosis surgical removal and md treatment with vilh radium and ray X-ray constitute the main reliance in all aU cases of this dis case ease Radium is however howe such an important im- im substance from the point of view lew of its effects on the human body that hat all sorts of oC methods have had hado I Ito to o be developed to protect those who who use and apply radium FRO FROM U CONTACTS Cases arc are on record and have had wide publicity in which girls who painted watch dials dilIs have suffered de dc- bone conditions from continued con can action of oC radium The skin especially that of the hands must be protected at all times from direct contact with unfiltered radium For this reason the rad radium um must be handled with ith Ion long forceps preferably made of oC wood so long that the he radium will be at a considerable distance from the body and the hands In Irs addition it is customary to put between the person handling the radium ra ra- ra and th this s material itself a shelf sheH which has been covered with at least one centimeter of sheet lead or its equivalent CONTAINERS OF LEAD Whenever radium Is moved from one room to another it should be carried carried car car- car car- ried ned in boxes made of lead The room in which the thc radium is kept is usually a n lined lead room and a room in n which people do not work con Dr E. E S. S Ernst recommends that radium when not in use should be stored in a safe with lead protection equivalent to five centimeters of or lead for every milligrams of radium During the period when hen the radium is being applied to the patient his room should not be frequently vis vii except by those who are arc taking care of him and a sign should be placed at the head of the bed indi eating cating that radium is being employed There arc are records of or serious injury injury in jury and deaths of r I people who have walked off oft from hospitals carrying radium in their bodies The use o of rad radium um Is not a simple matter It has to be applied under controlled controlled controlled con con- trolled conditions and according to the thc ph physical changes that have taken place in m the individual patient QUACKS AND RADIUM t Experts nowadays use both ray X-ray and radium in irs a combined attack on cancer The supply of radium available avail avail- able for the of oC cancer i is limited Its use is therefore controllable controllable con can by the reliable institutions institution that have it Unfortunately a considerable number num num- her ber of charlatans of one type or another another an an- other have exploited the word radium radium radium ra without themselves having nc ye radium or radium products fo for forthe forthe the purpose The general interest in inan inan inan an element clement so potent and so 50 valuable as this has made th the very word radium radium radium ra a selling word for quacks