There was a time in the early half of the 20th century when there was a huge fascination for radioactive and deadly materials as the pe...
There was a time in the early half of the 20th century when there was a huge fascination for radioactive and deadly materials as the perfect cure-it-all wonder drug. No one understood the effects of these materials on our body and among the countless products sold to unsuspecting consumers at that time was Radium and Thorium toothpaste. Consumer protection does not exist yet.
It was advertised that it whitens your teeth much better than calcium-based toothpaste and makes them glow in the dark! However, it was not the perfect dental care product that you should be using in the first place. Other products include lipsticks, facial cream, soap, powder, and toothpaste that contained varying amounts of thorium and radium.
It is difficult to comprehend that the general public has no idea that the radioactive materials are so dangerous even though some experts know it is. Yet the former just carried on as many people have inadvertently poisoned themselves to death.
The first US Radium Corporation factory was established in Orange, New Jersey in 1917 followed by Ottawa, Illinois and Waterbury, Connecticut in the 1920s.
Many naive, small-town New Jersey girls were hired to work in the production lines. They were the same workforce that painted clock faces of luminous watches and was even assured that the radioactive paint (which was radium) was harmless. The process involved licking the brushes with their lips and tongue so that it gives a very fine stroke. They were discouraged from rinsing the radioactive material because it would be a waste of time and material.
Many of these women including one Grace Fryer were working in sweatshop conditions as they were only paid about 25 cents per dial so it forces them to produce more than they can possibly could. And even with their downtime, they further increased radioactive intake when they paint their nails and brush their teeth with these radioactive lines of products.
The scientists know very well that the active key ingredient was approximately a million times more active than uranium and they ever even careful enough to avoid any exposure to it themselves. While their young female factory workers worked themselves to death while the owners and scientists were using lead screens, masks and tongs to handle it.
Soon, many of these women started to feel the impact of their daily exposure to radiation with many suffering from anemia, bone fractures and jaw necrosis (now known as radium jaw). When medical experts started investigating the case, they inadvertently contributed more radiation as the X-ray machines subjected them to greater harm.
US Radium and other watch-dial companies have even concocted a disinformation campaign to discredit the radium exposure claims of these poor women. Worker deaths were attributed by medical professionals to syphilis, a notorious sexually transmitted infection at the time often cited in attempts to smear the reputations of the women.
Many of these so-called "Radium Girls" died from complications brought about by radioactive poisoning. In fact, the Geiger counter goes wild when you visit their contaminated graves even after 80 years!
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