) If you brush off your copy of the Periodic Table stolen from your high school chemistry class, a few years back, you will find that the element calcium and the element strontium share many chemical characteristics. Recall that the chemical behavior of an atom is not affected by the number of neutrons in its nucleus.
The element strontium occurs naturally in the Earth’s soil. Its main isotope is called strontium-88. However, Strontium-90, which is one of the byproducts of the explosion of a fission-based nuclear weapon, is a dangerous fallout product that can readily get into our dairy products, and, therefore, into the bones of our body.
The long-term medical consequences related to the human body’s intake of this radio-nuclide are still being reviewed. Studies first started in the mid-1950s.
The associated articles are listed below.
