Radium jaw
Radium jaw, or radium necrosis, is a historic occupational disease brought on by the ingestion and subsequent absorption of radium into the bones of radium dial painters.[1][2] It also affected those consuming radium-laden patent medicines. A patient medicine is an over the counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name and claimed to be effective against some disorders and varying symptoms.[3][4]
The condition is similar to phossy jaw, an osteoporotic and osteonecrotic illness of matchgirls, brought on by phosphorus ingestion and absorption.
Symptoms
The symptoms are necrosis of the mandible (lower jawbone) and the maxilla (upper jaw), constant bleeding of the gums, and (usually) after some time, severe distortion due to bone tumors and porosity of the lower jaw.
Treatment
History
At the start of the 20th century, many believed that radium had beneficial health properties and was often added to consumer products such as toothpaste, hair creams, and even food. Used until the early 1970s, radium was found in some consumer paints, dials on clocks and some industrial applications. Radium was used in some medical practices during the 20th century.[5]
The disease was determined by pathologist Dr. H.S. Martland in 1924 to be symptomatic of radium paint ingestion, after many female workers from various radium paint companies reported similar dental and mandibular pain. The first written reference to the disease was by a dentist, Dr. Theodor Blum, in 1924, who described an unusual mandibular osteomyelitis in a dial painter, naming it "radium jaw".[6] Symptoms were present in the mouth due to use of the lips and tongue to keep the radium-paint paintbrushes properly shaped. The disease was the main reason for litigation against the United States Radium Corporation by the Radium Girls.
The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. The incidents occurred at three different factories in United States: one in Orange, New Jersey, beginning around 1917; one in Ottawa, Illinois, beginning in the early 1920s; and a third facility in Waterbury, Connecticut, also in the 1920s.[7]
A prominent example of this condition was the death of American golfer and industrialist Eben Byers in 1932, after taking large doses of Radithor, a radioactive patent medicine containing radium, over several years. His illness garnered much publicity, and brought the problem of radioactive quack medicines into the public eye. The Wall Street Journal ran a story (in 1989 or after) titled "The Radium Water Worked Fine until His Jaw Came Off".[8]
See also
- Acute radiation syndrome (not involved in radium jaw)
- Radium Dial Company
- Radium dials
- Phossy jaw
References
- ^ Grady, Denise (October 6, 1998), "A Glow in the Dark, and a Lesson in Scientific Peril", New York Times, retrieved 2019-06-13
- ^ Orci, Taylor (March 7, 2013), "How We Realized Putting Radium in Everything Was Not the Answer", The Atlantic, retrieved 2019-06-13
- ^ "Definition of PATENT MEDICINE". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
- ^ "patent medicine". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
- ^ "Health effects of Radium radiation exposure | Mass.gov". www.mass.gov. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
- ^ Blum, Theodor (1924). "Osteomyelitis of the Mandible and Maxilla". The Journal of the American Dental Association. 11 (9): 802–805. doi:10.14219/jada.archive.1924.0111. ISSN 1048-6364.
- ^ "Radium Girls: The Women Who Fought for Their Lives in a Killer Workplace | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
- ^ The Radium Water Worked Fine until His Jaw Came Off Medical Collectors Association, Newsletter No. 20, page 18
