- Undark
Undark was a trade name for
luminous paint made with a mixture ofradioactive radium andzinc sulfide , as produced by the U.S. Radium Corporation between 1917 and 1938. It was used primarily in watch dials. The people working in the industry who applied the radioactive paint became known as theRadium Girls , because many of them became ill and some died from exposure to the radiation emitted by the radium contained within the product. The product was the direct cause ofRadium jaw in the dial painters. Undark was also available as a kit for general consumer use and marketed as glow-in-the-dark paint.imilar products
Mixtures similar to Undark, consisting of radium and phosphorus were used by other companies. Trade names include:
* "Luna" used by theRadium Dial Company , a division of Standard Chemical Companyand
* "Marvelite" used by Cold Light Manufacturing Company (a subsidiary of the Radium Company of Colorado)ee also
*
Self-powered lighting Further reading
* Clark, Claudia. (1987). "Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935". University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4640-6.
* Ross Mullner. (1999) "Deadly Glow. The Radium Dial Worker Tragedy." American Public Health Association. ISBN 0-8755-3245-4.
* National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. "Radiation Exposure from Consumer Products and Miscellaneous Sources. NCRP Report No. 56. 1977.
* Scientific American ("Macklis RM, The great radium scandal. Sci.Am. 1993 Aug: 269(2):94-99")External links
* [http://www.roger-russell.com/jeffers/radiumdials.htm Roger Russel - Radium Dials]
* [http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=660 Damninteresting.com - Undark and the Radium Girls]
* [http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/radioluminescent/radioluminescentinfo.htm orau.org - Radioluminescent paint]
* [http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/radioluminescent/radioluminescent.htm orau.org - Photo gallery of radioluminescent items]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/100698sci-radium.html New York Times - "A Glow in the Dark, and a Lesson in Scientific Peril", Denise Grady, October 6, 1998]
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