Radium and radon in the environment
Radium and radon are important contributors to environmental radioactivity. Radon occurs naturally in the environment as a result of decay of radioactive elements in the soil and it can accumulate in houses built on areas where such decay occurs. This radon is among major causes of cancer, estimated to contribute to about 2% of all cancer related deaths in Europe.
Radium, like radon, is a radioactive element and it is found in small quantities in nature and may thus be hazardous to life if concentrated. Radium has its origins as a decay product of certain isotopes of uranium and thorium. Radium may also be released to the environment as a result of human activity, for example, in inproperly discarded products painted with radioluminescent paint.
Eben Byers was a wealthy American socialite whose death in 1932 as a result of using an radioactive quackery product called Radithor is a prominent example of a death caused by radium. Radithor contained approximately 1 μCi (40 MBq) of 226Ra and 1 μCi of 228Ra per bottle. Radithor was taken by mouth and radium, being a calcium mimic, has a very long biological halflife in bone.
Residues from the oil and gas industry often contain radium and its daughters. The sulfate scale from an oil well can be very radium rich. It is the case that the water inside an oil field is often very rich in strontium, barium and radium while seawater is very rich in sulfate so if water from an oil well is discharged into the sea or mixed with seawater the radium is likely to be brought out of solution by the barium/strontium sulfate which acts as a carrier precipitate.
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