Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey listener discretion advised.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful, she told her husband. It was Christmas time
Speaker 1: in Paris, but Marie and Pierre weren't looking at the
Speaker 1: glow of Paris city lights and soft snowfall. The couple
Speaker 1: were inside a dilapidated brick building that purchased as a
Speaker 1: makeshift laboratory, sitting on well worn chairs and odd wooden
Speaker 1: work table littered with an array of flimsy wires, scopes,
Speaker 1: and cheap instruments. A radiant, almost magical light broke the
Speaker 1: darkness surrounding them, and Marie found the luminescent glow captivating.
Speaker 1: Having married just three years earlier, when Marie was twenty
Speaker 1: seven and Pierre was thirty six, the two didn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of money. Yet despite the tottering chairs, odd
Speaker 1: work tables, and the isolation chamber made out of wooden
Speaker 1: grocery crates, the couple couldn't be happier. Science had brought
Speaker 1: them together, and their love of it had become an
Speaker 1: intimate bond between them. So Marie looked on the beautiful
Speaker 1: gleaming object still nestled deep within one of her pockets,
Speaker 1: The shimmering glow bright enough to allow Pierre to drop
Speaker 1: down a single word in their notebook. They chose a
Speaker 1: name for it, after the Latin word for ray. They
Speaker 1: called it radium. Before long, though, this new discovery would
Speaker 1: enchant more than just the Curies. The whole world was
Speaker 1: about to encounter a scientific miracle, and soon enough, interest
Speaker 1: in it would transform into obsession. But as we're about
Speaker 1: to find out, not all obsessions are good for us.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. It all started
Speaker 1: back in February of Marie and Pierre had immersed themselves
Speaker 1: in their lab. Marie began working with a heavy black
Speaker 1: substance known as pitch blend, noting that the naturally occurring
Speaker 1: mineral contained uranium. After that uranium had been removed, though
Speaker 1: the material left behind was still highly radioactive. When she
Speaker 1: studied those remains, Marie discovered an unknown luminous element. The
Speaker 1: couple worked tirelessly. Days after completing their notes, the Kerries
Speaker 1: announced their discovery to the French Academy of Sciences on December,
Speaker 1: and radium quickly became a breakthrough discovery. The substance destroyed
Speaker 1: human tissue, but as ghastly as that sounds, scientists around
Speaker 1: the world would soon put that property to use in
Speaker 1: the fight against cancer. Radium didn't disappoint either. Its effect
Speaker 1: on CANCERUS tumors proved nothing short of astounding. Newspapers printed
Speaker 1: articles that speculated on everything from the use of radium
Speaker 1: as for alizer to supercharge the growth of crops, to
Speaker 1: using it to make brilliantly glowing candies and shimmering cocktails.
Speaker 1: There were seemingly practical uses to Companies marketed paint for
Speaker 1: reflective house numbers. Radium Christmas tree lights were touted as
Speaker 1: being much safer than candles. Glowing light switches made it
Speaker 1: easier to find them in a dark room. In certain pharmacies,
Speaker 1: people bought radium laced pills and bandages. New types of
Speaker 1: clinics and spas opened up, promising a variety of radium
Speaker 1: induced health benefits if you could afford them. That is,
Speaker 1: In nineteen o four, a Manhattan based company produced a
Speaker 1: patented health water called Liquid Sunshine. The same company also
Speaker 1: created and sold a glow in the Dark ink. Another
Speaker 1: company made glow in the dark eyes for children's toys
Speaker 1: now creepy glowing doll eyes in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: Aside radiums, luminescence was indeed stunningly beautiful, and other products
Speaker 1: soon follow drinks, elixirs, salt soaps, and even suppositories. Many
Speaker 1: products claimed radium cured everything from agnet, awartz, and just
Speaker 1: about every ailment in between for the general public, though
Speaker 1: most of these products were sham most didn't contain any
Speaker 1: radium at all because the stuff was outrageously expensive. In
Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, a graham of radium costs eight four thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars that's one point nine million dollars in
Speaker 1: today's economy, making it one of the most expensive elements
Speaker 1: on Earth in its day, so, as you might expect,
Speaker 1: only the super rich were able to purchase anything with
Speaker 1: much radium in it. That didn't stop the wave of
Speaker 1: products or the people who clamored for them. Though radium
Speaker 1: toothpaste promised to dazzle smiles, intensifying the brightness with every brushing.
Speaker 1: Radior cosmetics sold creams, rouge, and powders designed to restore
Speaker 1: that youthful glow. Companies made radium butter and radium milk.
Speaker 1: Even clothing like lingerie and jock straps boasted radium to
Speaker 1: boost virility. No wonder, officials began to warn citizens to
Speaker 1: be on the lookout for radium scams. Companies found instant
Speaker 1: wealth in radium. Factories cropped up to meet the demand
Speaker 1: for radium enhanced products, and they didn't just build factories
Speaker 1: in cities. Factories were built in the suburbs too. Radium
Speaker 1: seemed to be everywhere, and demand for its skyrocketed, while
Speaker 1: more and more commercial products continued to emerge. Medical science,
Speaker 1: enamored with radium's groundbreaking use for cancer, researched the elements
Speaker 1: impact on other diseases. Sick patients began to call for
Speaker 1: treatment with radium. Doctors even wondered if radium might help
Speaker 1: them not only treat cancer, but actually cure it. In
Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds, radium was referred to as one
Speaker 1: of history's greatest finds. In nineteen o three, Marie Curry
Speaker 1: became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eleven, she was awarded a second Nobel Prize,
Speaker 1: taking her the first scientists to win two of these awards.
Speaker 1: Radium prompted the U s Surgeon General at the time
Speaker 1: to say that the element reminded him of a mythological
Speaker 1: super being. An English physician called radium the unknown God.
Speaker 1: Some had even said radium had been predicted in the Bible.
Speaker 1: Within a few short years, radium's future grew to be
Speaker 1: the new, bright and shiny object, bigger and brighter than
Speaker 1: a full moon on a clear night in the world.
Speaker 1: Mesmerized by its brilliance and allure couldn't get enough. But
Speaker 1: as it turned out, Marie's beautiful, glowing miracle had a
Speaker 1: darker side. Radium occurs naturally in our soil, groundwater, food,
Speaker 1: in small doses, usually one picogram or less per gram
Speaker 1: of soil. For perspective, Marie Carey sifted through tons of
Speaker 1: pitch blend just to find one tenth of a gram
Speaker 1: of radium. Without getting too technical, the amount of radium
Speaker 1: would contact through soil is probably negligible. Still, radium is
Speaker 1: about a million times more radioactive than uranium in much
Speaker 1: larger amounts. Though radium can cause anemia, cataracts, fractured teeth,
Speaker 1: ulcerated skin, lung cancer, and various forms of bone cancers
Speaker 1: like leukemia. While the curies knew about radioactive material. Little
Speaker 1: was understood about the long term effects on humans, and
Speaker 1: sure radium could destroy tumors, but it also killed off
Speaker 1: healthy tissue as well. But who could fault them? The
Speaker 1: Curies were physicists, after all, not physicians. Besides, tests for
Speaker 1: radium exposure simply didn't exist. Then in nineteen seventeen, the
Speaker 1: end of World War One was still a year away.
Speaker 1: In the United States, Patriotism was as common as apple pie.
Speaker 1: The economy was booming, and women took jobs and factories
Speaker 1: while the men were off fighting in the war. The
Speaker 1: popularity of radium was still soaring. A company called the
Speaker 1: US Radium Corporation patented un Dark, a blowing paint made
Speaker 1: from radium. While they specialized in watching clock dials, that
Speaker 1: also signed a profitable contract with the US government to
Speaker 1: use un Dark on gun sites and ship compasses for
Speaker 1: nighttime use. US Radium set up shop in Orange, New Jersey,
Speaker 1: right in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Huge windows
Speaker 1: surrounded the two story brick building, and more light streamed
Speaker 1: in from above. All that light was both charming and
Speaker 1: perfect for painting, and while they painted dials and instruments,
Speaker 1: the women workers enjoyed a beautiful view of the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: US Radium hired single immigrants Italian mostly. They paid them well, too,
Speaker 1: often three times more than factory workers. The women brought
Speaker 1: home three d and seventy dollars a week, which was
Speaker 1: just over nineteen thousand dollars a year the fast ones, though,
Speaker 1: they often doubled that, making them the top five percent
Speaker 1: of female way journers. Painting dials became a highly sought
Speaker 1: after dream job. Demand for luminescent dials continued to grow.
Speaker 1: When US Radium needed more painters, the girls hold their
Speaker 1: family and friends. Soon almost three seventy five women sat
Speaker 1: shoulder to shoulder painting dials. The women used fine camel
Speaker 1: hair brushes to paint the small watch dials. The bristles
Speaker 1: often separated after the application of radium powder, glue, and water.
Speaker 1: To solve this, the girls licked the tip of the
Speaker 1: brush and used their lips to smooth the fibers into
Speaker 1: a fine point. Now you and I wouldn't imagine doing
Speaker 1: such a thing, but the company assured the women that
Speaker 1: the mixture was perfectly safe. Besides, the method of lip
Speaker 1: pointing was just how it was done. Lip pointing allowed
Speaker 1: the women to work faster. Faster work meant more products.
Speaker 1: When their work they ended, the girls would paint their nails, lips,
Speaker 1: and teeth with radium powder and then meet their dates
Speaker 1: for an evening out. Every one knew them. As they
Speaker 1: walked out into the night, they simply glowed. But soon
Speaker 1: enough the girls began to get sick, and not just
Speaker 1: a little sick either. In Nto, Grace Friar, who had
Speaker 1: left two years earlier, lost several teeth. Dentists began to
Speaker 1: treat a large number of young girls with abscesses and
Speaker 1: rotting jaws. When one dentist asked us radium for the
Speaker 1: paint's formula, they refused. Dr Kenefe treated Molly, a young
Speaker 1: girl who complained that the pain in her face had
Speaker 1: become unbearable. Gently, Dr Keneife pressed a finger to Molly's jaw,
Speaker 1: accidentally causing the bone to break. When he looked inside
Speaker 1: her mouth, he discovered a piece of exposed bone. All
Speaker 1: he had to do was lift the fragment from her mouth.
Speaker 1: A week later, Dr Kenefe simply pulled out the remainder
Speaker 1: of Molly's lower jaw. No incisions or operation required. Other
Speaker 1: dentists experienced similar issues with their patients. One doctor reported
Speaker 1: a case of poisoning by phosphorus to the Industrial Hygiene
Speaker 1: Division on December. Upon visiting US Radiums factory, the inspector
Speaker 1: called attention to the technique of lip pointing. I've warned
Speaker 1: them it's dangerous, Harold Vite, US Radiums vice president told
Speaker 1: the inspector as they watched the girls put the brushes
Speaker 1: to their lips again and again. I've pulled them repeatedly,
Speaker 1: but they won't stop. This was, of course, a direct
Speaker 1: contradiction to telling the girls the material was absolutely harmless.
Speaker 1: Yet four months earlier they had written an internal article
Speaker 1: on the dangers of radium, and it wasn't the first either.
Speaker 1: The company later admitted ten such internal memos existed, some
Speaker 1: dating back to nineteen o six. In the end, the
Speaker 1: Public Health Services report found only a couple of cases
Speaker 1: with side effects connected to the radium paint, one case
Speaker 1: of skin erosion and one case of anemia. The Health
Speaker 1: Services formal recommendation take care when handling radium and what
Speaker 1: that meant was vague at best. Meanwhile, and despite the investigation,
Speaker 1: women continued to die. The most gruesome of deaths, deaths
Speaker 1: the company claimed were due to syphilis. Doctors and dentists
Speaker 1: didn't agree and felt certain that the women were dying
Speaker 1: from radium. They called for US Radium to shut down.
Speaker 1: Complaints to the Department of Labor and the Public Health
Speaker 1: Services fell on deaf ears, though even a letter asking
Speaker 1: for help from the National Consumers Leak went unanswered. No one,
Speaker 1: it seemed, cared much about the health or working conditions
Speaker 1: of the young women. An independent study in found a
Speaker 1: direct correlation between radium and the deaths and illnesses of
Speaker 1: the women. Outraged, US Radium paid researchers to prove radium safety.
Speaker 1: The company's president also claimed the women were attempting to
Speaker 1: extract money from the company for their health issues. Still,
Speaker 1: the rumors flew, and when two doctors from the Harvard
Speaker 1: School of Public Health asked US Radiums president if they
Speaker 1: could do a case study, he saw an opportunity. After
Speaker 1: interviewing chemists and twenty five women painters, the Harvard doctors
Speaker 1: delivered their report two weeks later. Fight handed over part
Speaker 1: of the Harvard report to the Department of Labor, claiming
Speaker 1: the report clearly showed that employee blood work was perfectly normal.
Speaker 1: That was only part of the report, though Harvard had
Speaker 1: a table for each ingredient used. Right removed the report
Speaker 1: on radium, which concluded enough evidence regarding over exposure. When
Speaker 1: the Harvard doctors caught wind of the emission, they decided
Speaker 1: to publish their own report. As you can imagine, this
Speaker 1: didn't go over well with Light. He threatened a lawsuit
Speaker 1: on behalf of US Radium, claiming the Harvard doctors had
Speaker 1: signed a confidentiality contract. Meanwhile, the women kept dying. In
Speaker 1: another US Radium employee died, this time was different. Officials
Speaker 1: took notice. The employee you see was mail Shortly after
Speaker 1: the new investigation started, a new doctor assigned to the
Speaker 1: case finally found proof that the women had overexposure to radium.
Speaker 1: Not only were their bodies emitting radiation, but the material
Speaker 1: was punching holes in their bones. Grace Friar, who had
Speaker 1: experienced earlier tooth loss, now had a deteriorating spine. Another
Speaker 1: girl's jawbone had disintegrated into nothing more than a stump.
Speaker 1: The doctors even determined that the women's l eggs were
Speaker 1: shortening from bone loss, and one woman, upon looking at herself,
Speaker 1: in the mirror one night, noticed that her skin actually
Speaker 1: glowed in the dark. All of this sounds horrific, and
Speaker 1: yes it was, but the radiation wasn't done with the women.
Speaker 1: Their illnesses would continue to worsen over time. Grace Fryer
Speaker 1: knew this is how she would die. According to the doctors,
Speaker 1: there was no cure, no slowing the radiation inside her,
Speaker 1: so she decided to take on us Radium in court.
Speaker 1: For two years, she searched for an attorney to take
Speaker 1: the case. Finally, on May eighth, a young lawyer named
Speaker 1: Raymond Barry accepted her case, filing the suit on Grace's
Speaker 1: behalf entirely on contingency. Four more women soon joined her,
Speaker 1: Edna Husman, Katherine shob and sisters Quintin McDonald and Albina Luis.
Speaker 1: Each woman asked for two d and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for medical expenses and compensation. There were obstacles to overcome, though,
Speaker 1: the first new Jersey's two year statute of limitations, the
Speaker 1: second living long enough to see the case through. Us
Speaker 1: Radium responded to Barry's filing, first by attacking his character
Speaker 1: and then by going to the bar and threatening charges
Speaker 1: Barry remained undaunted, though medical examiners in both New York
Speaker 1: and New Jersey were looking into employee deaths, and of course,
Speaker 1: there were newspaper reporters. Once the story leaked to the press,
Speaker 1: it became a front page headline. Day after day, the
Speaker 1: papers printed a new story the women's suffering, US Radium's defense,
Speaker 1: speculation on how the women would spend their quarter million
Speaker 1: dollar windfall if they won, and even stories about the
Speaker 1: effects of Radium and how much longer the women had
Speaker 1: to live. It's hard to imagine what it was like
Speaker 1: for those women, knowing they would die, but still reading
Speaker 1: headlines that all but predicted it. The newspapers reported Barry's
Speaker 1: stance on his client's health. He said, when you have
Speaker 1: heard that you are going to die, that there's no hope,
Speaker 1: and every newspaper you pick up, Prince, what really amounts
Speaker 1: to your obituary. There is nothing else. US Radium managed
Speaker 1: to keep the case going through n all while each
Speaker 1: of the defendants health predictably worsened. In January, Grace and
Speaker 1: the other women became so sick that raising their arms
Speaker 1: to take the oath in court proved impossible. In April,
Speaker 1: their health deteriorated to the point they could no longer
Speaker 1: tend court hearings. Hearing this news, Marie Currey offered her
Speaker 1: deepest condolences. Regrettably, she confirmed that there was no cure,
Speaker 1: no way of destroying or removing Radium once in the body.
Speaker 1: Carrie went on to strongly suggest that changing the way
Speaker 1: Radium was handled was imperative for the safety of those
Speaker 1: working with it. The Radium gard who had held out
Speaker 1: hope for so long, we're grief stricken. The case between
Speaker 1: US Radium and the women ultimately became a waiting game.
Speaker 1: The company used one delay tactic after another on a
Speaker 1: despite Barry's objections, the judge postponed the case until September,
Speaker 1: the reason U S Radiums witnesses planned on vacationing in
Speaker 1: Europe all summer long. Barry's worst fears seemed to becoming true.
Speaker 1: US Radium was stalling. The company was hedging their bets
Speaker 1: that the women would die before the trial. Public support
Speaker 1: for the women's sword the Radium girls plight continued to
Speaker 1: dominate the headlines. Pictures of Grace and the others being
Speaker 1: wheeled in and out of court shocked the nation, and
Speaker 1: photos of the damage done to them enraged the public.
Speaker 1: Us Radium, in an attempt to subdue public outcry, hired
Speaker 1: a consultant from Columbia University to run tests and hold
Speaker 1: a press conference on its findings. Consultant Frederick Flynn, stood
Speaker 1: before a crowd of spectators and press and declared that
Speaker 1: the women could survive their illnesses, and even more unbelievably,
Speaker 1: the tests showed no trace of radioactivity in the women.
Speaker 1: The press turned to the women's lawyer for a response. Again,
Speaker 1: Barry remained undaunted. He simply replied he'd c u S
Speaker 1: Radium in court. With continued public outrage and pressure on
Speaker 1: the New Jersey court system, the trial date was moved
Speaker 1: up to early June. Of Meanwhile, sympathy cards inundated the
Speaker 1: women's homes, along with letters from scammers looking to profit
Speaker 1: from the women claiming they had a cure. With growing
Speaker 1: empathy and compassion from the public, going to court started
Speaker 1: to look a lot less favorable to us Radium. A
Speaker 1: judge offered to mediate and the company sat down with
Speaker 1: Barry to negotiate a settlement. Within days of the trial,
Speaker 1: they reached an agreement each of the men would get
Speaker 1: just ten thousand dollars up front and a six d
Speaker 1: dollar yearly annuity. The company also agreed to pay all
Speaker 1: their current and future medical expenses. In doing so, though
Speaker 1: US Radium became the first company in American history to
Speaker 1: be held responsible for the health of their employees. For
Speaker 1: the Radium Girls, the settlement was a far cry from
Speaker 1: two d and fifty thousand dollars. Some of the women
Speaker 1: died within months of the agreement. Grace Fryar passed away
Speaker 1: a few years later at the age of thirty four,
Speaker 1: her spine shattered and all her teeth gone. She was
Speaker 1: unable to even sit without a back brace to hold
Speaker 1: her upright. It may sound like justice wasn't fully served,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's true. The women paid the ultimate price,
Speaker 1: after all, and their deaths have been nothing short of brutal,
Speaker 1: but their legacy has outlived them. Five women stood up
Speaker 1: to a goliath corporation. Their case set the president for
Speaker 1: suits involving environmental cancers and even helped form occupational hazard
Speaker 1: law for employees, laws that are still saving lives today.
Speaker 1: Grace and the others lost their lives to it, but
Speaker 1: Radium would never match their grit or inner glow or
Speaker 1: be as fierce as they turned out to be, They
Speaker 1: truly were the Radium Girls. Marie Curry knew a lot
Speaker 1: about tenacity and grit. She lost Pierre in nineteen o
Speaker 1: six to an unfortunate accident. Dedicated to serving science and
Speaker 1: helping others, Marie used her skills and resources during World
Speaker 1: War One to invent portable X rays for use in
Speaker 1: the field, called affectionately Little Curies later, Marie joined forces
Speaker 1: with Albert Einstein and Max Plunk at the Congress of
Speaker 1: Physics for the trio discussed groundbreaking discoveries in their field.
Speaker 1: Marie's love of her glowing radium became her life's work.
Speaker 1: She understood radium's power and that just because it occurred
Speaker 1: naturally didn't mean that it was altogether safe. Although she
Speaker 1: saw the promise the good in radium, others wielded the
Speaker 1: other side of the sword, using it for profit and
Speaker 1: at great cost to others. Marie Curie lived to be
Speaker 1: sixty six, passing away on July fourty four from a
Speaker 1: plastic anemia caused, of course, by radiation. As a woman scientist,
Speaker 1: she overcame a lot of obstacles, and her enduring spirit
Speaker 1: still serves as an inspiration to other women in the field.
Speaker 1: Her daughter, Irene became a physicist and her granddaughter became
Speaker 1: a nuclear physicist. Countless educational and research facilities also bear
Speaker 1: her name, including the Cury Institute. Officials moved Marie's remains
Speaker 1: to the Pantheon in Paris, where she became the first
Speaker 1: woman ever to be buried among the greatest minds of France.
Speaker 1: Her notebooks are also considered both the national and scientific treasure.
Speaker 1: There kept safe in France's National Library in Paris, You're
Speaker 1: not likely to see them, though not without signing a
Speaker 1: liability waiver and wearing protective gear. You see, Marie's notebooks
Speaker 1: are still highly radioactive, as are her physical remains, and
Speaker 1: they will be for a very long time until the
Speaker 1: year thirty five thirty four. There's more to this story.
Speaker 1: Stick around after the brief sponsor break to hear all
Speaker 1: about it. Eben Buyers had it all. He was the
Speaker 1: president of the world largest steel corporation, the A. M.
Speaker 1: Buyer's Company in Pittsburgh and a well known former professional golfer.
Speaker 1: But while celebrating a board a party train after a
Speaker 1: Harvard Yale football game, he injured an arm in a
Speaker 1: fall Upon returning home, he followed up with his physician.
Speaker 1: His doctor recommended a drink to help him heal. Rate
Speaker 1: it Thor was made by Bailey Radium Laboratories in East Orange,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and it boasted all the benefits of radium
Speaker 1: in a convenient drink. Thinking more was better, buyers drank
Speaker 1: three of the two ounce bottles a day every day.
Speaker 1: The drink was extremely expensive, as you might guess, but
Speaker 1: buyers could easily afford it. At first, he felt invigorated,
Speaker 1: so much so that he bought cases of Rate of
Speaker 1: Thor for his colleagues. He owned race horses, and he
Speaker 1: made sure they were given Rate A Thor two. Buyers,
Speaker 1: having once been known for his smooth moves with the ladies,
Speaker 1: found that Rate of Thor helped him regain his virility
Speaker 1: as well. Naturally, his many girlfriends also had plentiful stashes
Speaker 1: of the drink. The guy was rich. Things went well
Speaker 1: for buyers until his teeth began to fall out in ninety.
Speaker 1: After he complained, the Federal Trade Commission sent an investigator
Speaker 1: out to his estate. Amid the extravagant setting, they couldn't
Speaker 1: have been met with a more grizzly sight. Half of
Speaker 1: Buyer's face had disintegrated, two small teeth jutted from his
Speaker 1: upper jaw, and his lower jaw and chin had decomposed.
Speaker 1: Bandages wrapped his head to cover the holes large enough
Speaker 1: to see his brain, and much like the Radium girls,
Speaker 1: bones throughout his body had disintegrated as well. Yes, Eban
Speaker 1: Buyers was still alive. Speaking, as you can imagine, was
Speaker 1: difficult for him. He had endured two surgeries already, one
Speaker 1: to remove most of his decade upper jaw and another
Speaker 1: to remove a part of the lower portion. Still, he
Speaker 1: managed to testify about raded Thor. The FTC filed a
Speaker 1: cease and desist letter to Bailey Radium Laboratories on December nineteenth.
Speaker 1: Not only did the government want the company to stop
Speaker 1: claiming the drink had therapeutic value, they wanted them to
Speaker 1: stop promising that it was harmless. The manufacturer didn't fight
Speaker 1: like US Radium had. After the testimony of Eban Buyers,
Speaker 1: the company sty making radith Or entirely. Later on, the
Speaker 1: founder claimed he went out of business due to depression
Speaker 1: and not anything to do with the FTC IS investigation.
Speaker 1: When Ebben Buyers passed away in two the press covered
Speaker 1: it extensively. Being wealthy and well connected had made Buyers
Speaker 1: a celebrity of sorts, and having died from radiation poisoning,
Speaker 1: he was buried in a coffin lined with lead, and
Speaker 1: his death spurred the ninety eight Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act,
Speaker 1: which outlawed deceptive packaging. In nineteen sixty thirty three years
Speaker 1: after Buyer's death, an m I T scientist exhumed the
Speaker 1: man's remains. Buyer's skeleton still contained the same amount of
Speaker 1: radiation as the day he died. Like Marie Curry and
Speaker 1: the Radium Girls, his remains will be radioactive for centuries
Speaker 1: to come. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This
Speaker 1: episode was written by Michelle Muto with researcher Robin Miniter,
Speaker 1: and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Minky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn
Speaker 1: more about the show, visit Grim and Mile dot com.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.