[HN Gopher] Undark and the Radium Girls (2006)
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Undark and the Radium Girls (2006)
Author : not_a_boat
Score : 43 points
Date : 2024-08-05 17:50 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.damninteresting.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.damninteresting.com)
| aperrien wrote:
| You know, who knows what happened to the investors in US Radium?
| Where did their funds go, and is there a trail of other problems
| (or bodies) with their subsequent investments? I'd like to know
| who I hypothetically should and shouldn't be investing my money
| with, as I want the world to be a better place.
| neilv wrote:
| The article didn't say whether any of the people involved were
| prosecuted.
| cushychicken wrote:
| My friend Rachel Sumner wrote a song about this that won the John
| Lennon National Songwriting Contest last year.
|
| https://rachelsumner.bandcamp.com/track/radium-girls-curie-e...
|
| Come hear it live at Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival over
| Labor Day weekend. Odds are I'll be working the merch tent for
| them.
| swozey wrote:
| It's cool to see an article with almost 20 years of comments
| Chris2048 wrote:
| > The report which the company provided to the New Jersey
| Department of Labor credited Cecil Drinker as the author, however
| the ominous descriptions of unhealthy conditions were replaced
| with glowing praise
|
| How did this blatant fraud not automatically prompt the
| government to come down hard on USR?!
| ta2112 wrote:
| > The mysterious deaths were often blamed on syphilis to
| undermine the womens' reputations, and many doctors and dentists
| inexplicably cooperated with the powerful company's
| disinformation campaign.
|
| What is wrong with people?!
| gambiting wrote:
| Money. And the very common belief back then that working people
| are worse in some way, so they deserve whatever comes their way
| - if they didn't want to get radium poisoning they could have
| picked a better industry /s
| Damogran6 wrote:
| Radium, Lead, Asbestos, Nicotene, R-12 refrigerant, Social Media
|
| Seems like a lot of things that are an initial good, but turn out
| to be not so hot after a decade or so.
| thechao wrote:
| Well, we've known about the dangers of lead for an awfully long
| time:
|
| > https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0960327117737146
| crdrost wrote:
| One part of the saga of "why didn't anyone do anything?" is that
| this was a state's rights problem originally:
|
| > In New Jersey, reformers won their fight for a law allowing
| compensation for "radium necrosis." State labor and health
| agencies were able to halt lip pointing, but their power over
| industry was sometimes limited. For example, the New Jersey Labor
| Department issued to U.S. Radium Corporation an order to tighten
| safety for its dial painters -- "comply or close." It closed and
| moved elsewhere. Federal agencies mostly deferred to state
| authority over radium. [1]
|
| If you have never seen the ads, they are a head trip too. People
| telling you how drinking radioactive water will give you "natural
| energy" and so forth. [2]
|
| The craziest part is that it didn't stop due to lawsuits or
| regulations, it stopped because nuclear energy plants
| proliferated and gave us many other isotopes to work with, most
| of them without the 1000+ year half life of radium. The feds
| didn't get really involved until _fricking 9 /11_, if you can
| believe it. [3]
|
| 1. https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-
| ref/students/history-10...
|
| 2. https://flashbak.com/vintage-produce-of-the-day-cure-all-
| rad...
|
| 3. https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-
| ref/students/history-10...
| j_bum wrote:
| There is a great "Behind the Bastards" episode on William
| Bailey's involvement in spreading radiation poisoning that also
| covers the Radium girls [0]
|
| [0] https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-
| bastards-29236...
| umvi wrote:
| If you read almost any literature taking place the first half of
| the 20th century, you'll see that a lot of industries were highly
| abusive of workers, not just radium industry. I'm sure it's even
| worse pre-20th century.
|
| For example:
|
| - coal mining (read: "The Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam) - tons of
| coal mining injury, death, and chronic illness (black lung).
| Stakeholders were aware of the causes of black lung but put
| profit over people.
|
| - horse racing (read: "Seabiscuit" by Laura Hillenbrand) - tons
| of jockey injury and death (not to mention the pressure jockeys
| were under to engage in bulimia and other unhealthy practices).
| Super high jockey suicide rates. Stakeholders were aware but put
| profit over people.
| Duanemclemore wrote:
| The excellent podcast The Constant has a great episode on the
| health benefits of Radium...
|
| https://www.constantpodcast.com/episodes/for-that-healthy-gl...
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