Dicran Kabakjian Made Radioactive Home

Armenian-American scientist Dr. Dicran Hadjy Kabakjian moved his radium-refining business into his family’s Pennsylvania basement in 1923, producing radium-filled needles for doctors and hospitals to use in cancer radiotherapy. For about 20 years, his family helped grind carnotite ore, extract radium, and bury radioactive waste in the backyard. The property later became a Superfund site, cleanup costs ran into tens of millions, and when officials exhumed Kabakjian’s body for testing, it contained what was described as the largest amount of radioactive material ever detected in a human body.

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