Marie and Pierre Curie experimenting with radium,
a drawing by: André Castaigne
This drawing is said to be considered: Public Domain
A good friend on Facebook alerted me to this vital information this morning and because it has been an important part of my past, I felt compelled to share it here.
This ugly story is about yet another way that Humans have caused mortal harm often, with little concern, to their fellow Humans.
Years ago, we had Native Friends in the East who had developed severe physical afflictions from growing up in Arizona during the time when Uranium mining was being done with little regard to the effect it would have on Humans, primarily the Native people who lived near the mining areas there.
This was not the only instance of US mining processes harming Native people, there were many others, all just as deadly.
From the information gleaned from my searches this morning, it seems that we have a lengthy history in this country of deliberate neglect, and willful intent to harm others on a regular basis and shamefully for profit.
This is the story of the women, most of who worked in the Eastern United States, New Jersey to be exact, in factories making products often for the US Government, that would in a very short time and after great suffering on their part, end their lives.
They, without their consent or knowledge, were being poisoned by radiation from Radium.
At this time in our early US history, many people freely used, or worked with and handled, this what is now known to be deadly substance.
Even Marie Curie the renowned Polish Scientist, who won two Nobel Prizes, one in Chemistry and one in Physics, was not exempt from their lethal effects.
She was not only the first woman to win one, but she was also the only woman to win two!
After a lifetime of one brilliant accomplishment after another, sadly, her work with this very dangerous substance, Radium, would eventually cause her death.
Her development of aplastic anemia was said to be linked to her bad habit of carrying toxic, radioactive isotope test tubes in her lab coat pockets.
Tragically, Madame Curie, like the other Radium Girls, would in the end, succumb to the very evil that she had helped to discover.
Places to learn more:
‘Radium Girls’ Remembered for Role in Shaping US Labor Law
Mae Keane, One Of The Last ‘Radium Girls,’ Dies At 107
The Radium Girls and the Generation that brushed its Teeth with Radioactive Toothpaste
Flawless Pandemonium 