Key Data and Description

Key Data

Atomic Number: 88

Atomic Mass: 226

Melting Point: 700 C

Boiling Point: 1140 C

Found In: water, rock-forming minerals at low concentrations, uranium ores

Description

Pure metallic radium is bright white when freshly prepared, but it blackens when it is exposed to the air. It shows luminescence like salts do. Radium makes a red color when held to a flame. Radium is an active metal. It is the last element in Group IIA on the periodic chart. Its location on the periodic chart means it is the heaviest of the alkaline-earth metals that are in this group. Radium reacts strongly with water to generate hydrogen gas and produce radium hydroxide. All radium comes from byproducts of uranium.

Inhalation, injection, or body exposure to radium can cause cancer and other body disorders. Radium emits radioactive radon gas and disintegrates radioactively until it reaches stable lead. Radium is a radiological hazard. It is over a million times more radioactive than the same mass of uranium. Radium can replace calcium in the bones, so bones are target organs for damage when there is exposure to inhalation. When soil that has radium in it is ingested, the gastrointestinal tract may also be a target organ system. The type of cancer that may result from exposure is related to how the radium enters the body.

The radioactive decay of radium, results in radon. Radon is a naturally occurring odorless, tasteless, and colorless radioactive gas. Radon gas can move through soil and rocks, and can penetrate a house through cracks and/or openings in the building's floors or walls. After radon decays,it can attach to the lining of the lungs. It is believed that radon, at low concentrations can increase the incidence of lung cancer.