re: The Radium Girls — still glowing in their coffins

Not nearly the same, but my dad tells stories about playing with mercury as a kid. He said they would hold it in their hands and pass it around the classroom. Little did they know.....

Radium-226 is an alpha. Not some beta like Radium-228.

Sorry, not sorry for the bad chemistry joke.

Luckily with Radium-226 almost all radiation emitted is alpha radiation which cannot penetrate skin or clothes and is only hazardous if ingested or inhaled.

I worked with Radioactive Materials for nearly 20 years. This is the usual case study for Radiation Biology and is certainly among the more fascinating incidents.

Other good ones are the Marshall Islanders after the US atomic bomb testing in the Pacific. The US failed to consider wind direction and they were exposed to a tremendous amount of fallout. Obviously, the atomic bomb survivors are a good one too.

There was also a study done which was somewhat comical. A scientist was looking to analyze the effects of radiation on sperm. He devised what amounted to a commode where the individuals would sit and then their testicles were exposed to x-ray radiation. The long-term goal was to establish whether or not this would cause birth defects.

As you might expect it was difficult to find people willing to participate in the experiment. So the only group he found was actually prison inmates in Alabama if I remember correctly. He would bribe them to participate using things like cigarettes. Because they were prisoners many of which had life sentences this made the study difficult to complete as most of them are not breeding.

More recently, a teenager in Michigan created a small nuclear reactor in his backyard using every day household items like radium watch dials, lantern mantles and parts from smoke detectors. They wrote a book about him called the Atomic Boy Scout. A fascinating read. There are a few pics of him covered in radiation induced burns.

Honestly had no idea that radium was used to make the clock dials glow.

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it just came out in his hand along with a chunk of her jaw bone

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Honestly had no idea that radium was used to make the clock dials glow.

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Still being used to this day.

What about Fluoroscopes used in shoe stores in the 40-70's. Any one could put their feet in the thing and zap it with radiation never thinking it would cause problems. Hell in my own profession dentists in the 1920's on, would focus their radiology beams using their thumbs on X ray plates multiple times a day. Many of these guys lost not just their thumbs but significant portions of their hands as well.

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As much as I deplore governmental regulatory intrusion into our lives it just goes to prove how careless and cruel workers were treated in the past.

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Don't go too far with that.

What it really demonstrates is that a large part of the safety regulations we have today are because lots of people were killed due to ignorance. People simply didn't know any better.

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