But didn’t they actually know that it was poisoning the shit out of the radium girls? iirc that whole not knowing thing was a classic corporate case of totally not knowing (nudge nudge, wink wink)
Wasn’t even a passing off, syphilis was one of those diseases that was seen as a sign of poor character (leper logic) so it was also an attempt to outright slander their own employees.
Ask Marie Curie.
https://www.iflscience.com/marie-curies-body-was-so-radioactive-she-was-buried-in-a-lead-lined-coffin-69080
Or the Radium Girls
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls
But didn’t they actually know that it was poisoning the shit out of the radium girls? iirc that whole not knowing thing was a classic corporate case of totally not knowing (nudge nudge, wink wink)
100% correct. They knew, and when the injuries were a lot more severe than they anticipated, they tried to pass it off as syphilis.
Wasn’t even a passing off, syphilis was one of those diseases that was seen as a sign of poor character (leper logic) so it was also an attempt to outright slander their own employees.
An excellent podcast about the story of the radium girls if you’re interested:
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford: How the Radium Girls Fought Back
Episode webpage: https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/how-the-radium-girls-fought-back
Media file: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/18db03/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c0ae8c6e-22f0-4e9b-ac1c-ae390037ac53/94ddcc41-1c34-4ab5-8586-b0d101457f5c/audio.mp3?in_playlist=7f5a4714-6b10-4ccf-a424-ae390037ac70
Further:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Byers
Ah yes the industrialist who died and was important enough for radiation to be taken seriously