1 00:00:15,410 --> 00:00:23,170 Speaker 1: Pushkin. The body of a six year old girl is 2 00:00:23,210 --> 00:00:27,050 Speaker 1: about to be buried. She died in isolation in a 3 00:00:27,090 --> 00:00:31,930 Speaker 1: hospital bed, a terrible death. Her face and neck swollen, 4 00:00:32,570 --> 00:00:37,210 Speaker 1: ulcers on her stomach, internal bleeding from almost every organ. 5 00:00:39,010 --> 00:00:41,770 Speaker 1: Just a few weeks earlier, she had been completely fine, 6 00:00:42,290 --> 00:00:48,450 Speaker 1: a normal, healthy, happy girl. Her name was Lada. Her 7 00:00:48,450 --> 00:00:51,450 Speaker 1: body is in a coffin on a vehicle making its 8 00:00:51,450 --> 00:00:56,330 Speaker 1: way to the cemetery. The coffin is lined with lead. 9 00:00:57,210 --> 00:01:00,210 Speaker 1: Hundreds of people have gathered at the entrance to the cemetery, 10 00:01:00,610 --> 00:01:04,610 Speaker 1: but they're not here to mourn. They're here to protest. 11 00:01:05,770 --> 00:01:07,970 Speaker 1: They don't want the body of this six year old 12 00:01:08,010 --> 00:01:11,410 Speaker 1: girl to be buried in their city. They hurl stones 13 00:01:11,410 --> 00:01:14,330 Speaker 1: into the road, trying to block the vehicle's path into 14 00:01:14,370 --> 00:01:18,170 Speaker 1: the cemetery. When that doesn't work, they throw stones at 15 00:01:18,250 --> 00:01:23,970 Speaker 1: lady's coffin. The year is nineteen eighty seven. The location 16 00:01:24,370 --> 00:01:28,810 Speaker 1: is Guyana, a city in central Brazil, and the people 17 00:01:28,850 --> 00:01:32,250 Speaker 1: of Guyana have just been through an experience that few 18 00:01:32,290 --> 00:01:37,290 Speaker 1: of them yet understand and none had seen coming. This 19 00:01:37,690 --> 00:01:42,170 Speaker 1: is a story about ignorance, which is bad, and something else, 20 00:01:42,970 --> 00:01:48,970 Speaker 1: something much worse. I'm Tim Harford and you're listening to 21 00:01:49,170 --> 00:02:29,530 Speaker 1: cautionary tales. A Sunday morning in Guyana, a young man 22 00:02:29,570 --> 00:02:33,330 Speaker 1: gets a visit from his friend. Both are poor. They 23 00:02:33,330 --> 00:02:36,410 Speaker 1: scrape a living by scavenging for scrap that they can 24 00:02:36,450 --> 00:02:39,770 Speaker 1: sell to junk dealers. The friend has heard a rumor 25 00:02:39,930 --> 00:02:42,410 Speaker 1: about something that they might be able to scavenge and 26 00:02:42,570 --> 00:02:47,610 Speaker 1: sell lead. Lots of lead, so much that it's far 27 00:02:47,690 --> 00:02:49,730 Speaker 1: too heavy for him to deal with on his own. 28 00:02:50,530 --> 00:02:54,610 Speaker 1: Come and help me, he says. But it's Sunday, Oh, 29 00:02:54,610 --> 00:02:57,970 Speaker 1: come on, it's only half a mile away. The two 30 00:02:58,010 --> 00:03:00,970 Speaker 1: scavengers take a wheelbarrow to the site of an old 31 00:03:01,090 --> 00:03:05,250 Speaker 1: hospital demolished a couple of years before, but one building 32 00:03:05,530 --> 00:03:09,210 Speaker 1: still stands amid the rubble. It used to be the 33 00:03:09,210 --> 00:03:14,610 Speaker 1: Igoyanya Institute of Radiotherapy. Apparently there's some kind of legal 34 00:03:14,650 --> 00:03:17,890 Speaker 1: dispute about who owns the building. That's why it hasn't 35 00:03:17,930 --> 00:03:21,610 Speaker 1: been knocked down with the others. Someone has bashed a 36 00:03:21,650 --> 00:03:25,690 Speaker 1: hole in the wall. Homeless people sometimes sleep inside when 37 00:03:25,690 --> 00:03:30,770 Speaker 1: the security guard isn't there. He isn't there today. The 38 00:03:30,810 --> 00:03:34,770 Speaker 1: two scavengers enter the building. In a room, they find 39 00:03:34,810 --> 00:03:38,170 Speaker 1: the device that has the lead in it. So much 40 00:03:38,330 --> 00:03:42,610 Speaker 1: lead hundreds of kilos. Clearly it's some kind of medical 41 00:03:42,610 --> 00:03:46,530 Speaker 1: device cased in plastic, shaped a bit like a tear 42 00:03:46,610 --> 00:03:50,330 Speaker 1: drop two or three feet across, attached by a metal 43 00:03:50,370 --> 00:03:53,410 Speaker 1: beam to a thick concrete wall in such a way 44 00:03:53,410 --> 00:03:56,410 Speaker 1: that you can aim the pointy bit in different directions. 45 00:03:57,650 --> 00:04:00,970 Speaker 1: The friends have brought some simple tools with them. They 46 00:04:01,010 --> 00:04:05,450 Speaker 1: set about taking the device apart. It takes four hours, 47 00:04:05,930 --> 00:04:08,410 Speaker 1: and how are they going to carry a chunk of 48 00:04:08,490 --> 00:04:13,050 Speaker 1: lead way hundreds of kilos? They try putting the wheelbarrow 49 00:04:13,130 --> 00:04:15,770 Speaker 1: on its side and pushing the massive lead into it. 50 00:04:16,290 --> 00:04:19,490 Speaker 1: That doesn't work, It just breaks one of the wheelbarrow's legs. 51 00:04:20,250 --> 00:04:22,890 Speaker 1: But in the center of the device they've uncovered a 52 00:04:22,930 --> 00:04:25,970 Speaker 1: part that's come loose, a cylinder about a foot long. 53 00:04:26,770 --> 00:04:30,610 Speaker 1: It must weigh one hundred kilos, but they can lift 54 00:04:30,730 --> 00:04:35,090 Speaker 1: it into the wheelbarrow just about taking turns. They push 55 00:04:35,170 --> 00:04:38,210 Speaker 1: the barrow back to the scavenger's house and set the 56 00:04:38,250 --> 00:04:41,770 Speaker 1: heavy cylinder down in the yard under a mango tree. 57 00:04:43,010 --> 00:04:45,650 Speaker 1: Their work isn't done yet. On and off for the 58 00:04:45,650 --> 00:04:49,290 Speaker 1: next few days they hammer away at the cylinder. Before 59 00:04:49,330 --> 00:04:52,050 Speaker 1: they can sell the lead, they have to separate it 60 00:04:52,090 --> 00:04:55,410 Speaker 1: out from some other stuff. The lead surrounds a sort 61 00:04:55,410 --> 00:05:00,010 Speaker 1: of capsule made from stainless steel, which has no scrap value. 62 00:05:00,530 --> 00:05:03,810 Speaker 1: There's a tiny little window into the capsule. They bash 63 00:05:03,890 --> 00:05:07,930 Speaker 1: it in with a screwdriver. One of the scavengers starts 64 00:05:07,970 --> 00:05:12,570 Speaker 1: to feel ill, nausea and vomiting. So does the other, 65 00:05:13,010 --> 00:05:16,650 Speaker 1: and one of his hands is swelling up. He goes 66 00:05:16,690 --> 00:05:21,010 Speaker 1: to the doctor. Maybe it's an allergic reaction to some food. 67 00:05:21,330 --> 00:05:25,330 Speaker 1: The doctor says. At last, though they've got the valuable 68 00:05:25,410 --> 00:05:30,210 Speaker 1: lead off that little steel capsule. They wheel it all 69 00:05:30,290 --> 00:05:33,130 Speaker 1: to the yard of the local junk dealer. Ill by 70 00:05:33,170 --> 00:05:35,610 Speaker 1: the lead, he says, I've got no interest in the 71 00:05:35,650 --> 00:05:38,850 Speaker 1: steel capsule, but fine, whatever, just put it in the garage. 72 00:05:40,250 --> 00:05:44,090 Speaker 1: That night, the dealer turns off the light in the garage, 73 00:05:46,090 --> 00:05:51,130 Speaker 1: but the room isn't plunged into darkness. Instead, there's a 74 00:05:51,170 --> 00:05:55,890 Speaker 1: beam of blue light shining from the tiny broken window 75 00:05:55,970 --> 00:05:59,850 Speaker 1: of the capsule, like a spotlight on the wall. It 76 00:05:59,890 --> 00:06:04,890 Speaker 1: looks eerie and beautiful. The dealer takes the capsule into 77 00:06:04,970 --> 00:06:07,370 Speaker 1: the house and puts it in the closet where his 78 00:06:07,490 --> 00:06:11,250 Speaker 1: wife keeps her clothes. He invites neighbors to come and 79 00:06:11,290 --> 00:06:14,970 Speaker 1: see the blue glow. What's glowing? Is a kind of 80 00:06:15,130 --> 00:06:18,210 Speaker 1: crystal type stuff in the middle of the capsule. There 81 00:06:18,250 --> 00:06:22,930 Speaker 1: is much of it, barely a spoonful. The dealer shows 82 00:06:22,930 --> 00:06:26,210 Speaker 1: his brother, a bus driver. I'm going to get jewelry 83 00:06:26,210 --> 00:06:29,730 Speaker 1: made for my wife from it, he says. The brother 84 00:06:29,850 --> 00:06:33,410 Speaker 1: picks up a grain of the glowing substance. It crumbles 85 00:06:33,410 --> 00:06:36,730 Speaker 1: into powder between his fingers. He brushes it off on 86 00:06:36,810 --> 00:06:39,610 Speaker 1: his palm. You won't be able to make anything from that. 87 00:06:41,690 --> 00:06:45,450 Speaker 1: The dealer and his family are now all getting ill, 88 00:06:46,410 --> 00:06:51,770 Speaker 1: nausea and vomiting. The wife goes to see a doctor. 89 00:06:52,530 --> 00:06:57,170 Speaker 1: Sounds like food poisoning, the doctor says. The wife thinks back, 90 00:06:57,930 --> 00:07:01,690 Speaker 1: who's ill and what have they all consumed recently. There's 91 00:07:01,770 --> 00:07:05,210 Speaker 1: just one thing that links together everyone she knows who's sick. 92 00:07:05,970 --> 00:07:08,570 Speaker 1: The coca cola they drank the night she made a 93 00:07:08,570 --> 00:07:12,130 Speaker 1: black bean stew. She still has some of the coca 94 00:07:12,130 --> 00:07:15,010 Speaker 1: cola and she takes it to the local public health center, 95 00:07:15,490 --> 00:07:20,250 Speaker 1: the Vihilansia Sanitaria. I think this is bad, she says, 96 00:07:20,570 --> 00:07:28,370 Speaker 1: Can you run some tests in another part of the city. 97 00:07:28,810 --> 00:07:31,850 Speaker 1: Another of the junk dealer's brothers has heard about the illness, 98 00:07:32,250 --> 00:07:35,850 Speaker 1: and he goes to visit. It's been only a few days, 99 00:07:35,970 --> 00:07:40,250 Speaker 1: but the dealer's family are getting dramatically worse. It's not 100 00:07:40,450 --> 00:07:44,650 Speaker 1: just nausea and vomiting. Now they've got strange marks on 101 00:07:44,730 --> 00:07:49,530 Speaker 1: their skin. Their hair is falling out. Neighbors are gossiping 102 00:07:49,570 --> 00:07:53,530 Speaker 1: that they've got aids. The dealer's teeth are coming loose. 103 00:07:54,570 --> 00:07:57,370 Speaker 1: The dealer thanks his brother for coming to check on them, 104 00:07:57,650 --> 00:08:00,890 Speaker 1: and says, before you go, come and see this thing 105 00:08:00,930 --> 00:08:07,090 Speaker 1: I bought. It glows blue. It's beautiful. It is indeed beautiful. 106 00:08:08,370 --> 00:08:10,610 Speaker 1: The brother apps a bit of the substance in a 107 00:08:10,610 --> 00:08:13,770 Speaker 1: piece of paper and slips it into his pocket to 108 00:08:13,810 --> 00:08:17,050 Speaker 1: take home. He wants to show it to his six 109 00:08:17,130 --> 00:08:23,210 Speaker 1: year old daughter, Lada. Look at this. The little girl 110 00:08:23,290 --> 00:08:26,810 Speaker 1: picks some up and crumbles it in her fingers. It's 111 00:08:26,890 --> 00:08:30,490 Speaker 1: like a special kind of glitter. A neighbor walks by 112 00:08:30,730 --> 00:08:34,530 Speaker 1: and remarks on the glow. The brother playfully daubed some 113 00:08:34,610 --> 00:08:37,650 Speaker 1: of the powdery substance on her neck. Your husband will 114 00:08:37,690 --> 00:08:41,890 Speaker 1: find you in the dark. Tonight. Lada's eating a boiled 115 00:08:41,930 --> 00:08:46,930 Speaker 1: egg now, her fingers still glowing blue. She always forgets 116 00:08:46,930 --> 00:08:49,410 Speaker 1: to wash her hands, no matter how many times they 117 00:08:49,410 --> 00:08:55,970 Speaker 1: tell her. That night, Lada vomits. The next day, the 118 00:08:56,010 --> 00:09:00,770 Speaker 1: neighbour's neck is irritated. Could there be something bad about 119 00:09:00,810 --> 00:09:05,770 Speaker 1: that glowing powder? The junk dealer's wife has started to 120 00:09:05,850 --> 00:09:09,730 Speaker 1: wander the same thing. This isn't like any food poisoning 121 00:09:09,770 --> 00:09:12,890 Speaker 1: she's ever known. That means it can't be the coca cola, 122 00:09:13,530 --> 00:09:18,210 Speaker 1: So what else? Links everyone she knows who's ill. She 123 00:09:18,370 --> 00:09:21,890 Speaker 1: takes the stainless steel capsule with what's left of the 124 00:09:21,930 --> 00:09:26,330 Speaker 1: crumbly crystals and goes back to the Vihillansia Sanitaria, the 125 00:09:26,370 --> 00:09:29,810 Speaker 1: same place she'd taken the coke. She puts the capsule 126 00:09:30,090 --> 00:09:36,250 Speaker 1: on the doctor's desk. This thing is killing my family. 127 00:09:37,690 --> 00:09:39,850 Speaker 1: The doctor doesn't really know what to make of it, 128 00:09:40,210 --> 00:09:43,250 Speaker 1: but it's clear that the woman is in a bad way. 129 00:09:43,330 --> 00:09:46,930 Speaker 1: He sends her to the hospital for tropical diseases. Perhaps 130 00:09:47,010 --> 00:09:49,690 Speaker 1: they can figure out what's wrong. He gets on with 131 00:09:49,770 --> 00:09:53,850 Speaker 1: his day. After a while, he looks again at the 132 00:09:53,890 --> 00:09:57,330 Speaker 1: thing on his desk and thinks, what if she's right? 133 00:09:58,090 --> 00:10:01,810 Speaker 1: What if it is dangerous? He takes it outside and 134 00:10:01,890 --> 00:10:04,250 Speaker 1: puts it on a chair in the courtyard. For now, 135 00:10:04,930 --> 00:10:08,010 Speaker 1: he should probably get rid of it, but how he's 136 00:10:08,050 --> 00:10:13,970 Speaker 1: not sure. He calls the fire department. Meanwhile, at the 137 00:10:13,970 --> 00:10:17,970 Speaker 1: hospital for Tropical diseases, one doctor looks at the lesions 138 00:10:18,010 --> 00:10:21,930 Speaker 1: on the dealer's wife's skin and thinks, that looks like 139 00:10:21,970 --> 00:10:27,450 Speaker 1: a radiation buron. But how can that be. He happens 140 00:10:27,490 --> 00:10:30,490 Speaker 1: to know a nuclear physicist who's currently visiting the city 141 00:10:30,650 --> 00:10:34,490 Speaker 1: and calls him up. Can he help them investigate? The 142 00:10:34,530 --> 00:10:38,410 Speaker 1: physicist degrees, but he needs a radiation meter. Where can 143 00:10:38,410 --> 00:10:41,570 Speaker 1: he get one in this city. He tries the local 144 00:10:41,610 --> 00:10:45,450 Speaker 1: office of a federal government agency that does geological surveys. 145 00:10:46,210 --> 00:10:48,970 Speaker 1: He persuades them to lend him a meter. He takes 146 00:10:49,010 --> 00:10:53,330 Speaker 1: it to the Vilancia Sanitaria. Outside the building, he turns 147 00:10:53,330 --> 00:10:57,650 Speaker 1: the meter on. It shoots right off the scale in 148 00:10:57,650 --> 00:11:02,050 Speaker 1: whatever direction he points it. How annoying. The meter must 149 00:11:02,050 --> 00:11:05,370 Speaker 1: be faulty. He goes back to the agency's office and 150 00:11:05,410 --> 00:11:10,890 Speaker 1: swaps it for another one. The same thing happened. Seems 151 00:11:10,970 --> 00:11:15,610 Speaker 1: like it's not a fault. He goes inside the building 152 00:11:15,930 --> 00:11:18,730 Speaker 1: and meets the doctor who put the capsule in the courtyard. 153 00:11:19,290 --> 00:11:22,410 Speaker 1: Don't worry, says the doctor. I've called the fire department 154 00:11:22,570 --> 00:11:24,370 Speaker 1: and they've decided how to get rid of the stuff. 155 00:11:24,410 --> 00:11:27,810 Speaker 1: Whatever it is. They're going to throw it in the river. No, 156 00:11:28,490 --> 00:11:32,690 Speaker 1: says the physicist. Don't do that. That's the worst possible 157 00:11:32,730 --> 00:11:38,370 Speaker 1: thing you could do. Cautionary tales will be back after 158 00:11:38,410 --> 00:11:57,970 Speaker 1: the break. Ottawa, Illinois in nineteen twenty two, a small 159 00:11:58,010 --> 00:12:02,610 Speaker 1: town of ten thousand people. A new employer has just 160 00:12:02,730 --> 00:12:04,930 Speaker 1: moved into the old high school building. 161 00:12:05,650 --> 00:12:08,930 Speaker 2: Radium Dial Studio requires the services of several girls for 162 00:12:08,930 --> 00:12:14,410 Speaker 2: studio work. Ideal location and surroundings, good pay while learning. 163 00:12:15,290 --> 00:12:20,170 Speaker 1: The work, as the company's name suggests, involves painting dials 164 00:12:20,250 --> 00:12:25,050 Speaker 1: with radium, dials of clocks and watches and instruments on airplanes. 165 00:12:26,170 --> 00:12:31,010 Speaker 1: And why radium Because mixed with phosphor, it blows a 166 00:12:31,050 --> 00:12:34,650 Speaker 1: bright greenish glow. You can see in the dark what 167 00:12:34,690 --> 00:12:37,810 Speaker 1: time it is or how high your plane is flying. 168 00:12:39,050 --> 00:12:43,650 Speaker 1: Radium is still fairly new, discovered by Mary Kouri in 169 00:12:43,850 --> 00:12:49,530 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight in Ottawa, Illinois. Nineteen year old Katherine 170 00:12:49,570 --> 00:12:52,050 Speaker 1: Wolf is one of the first to be employed at 171 00:12:52,130 --> 00:12:56,250 Speaker 1: Radium Dial. Her story is among those told in Kate 172 00:12:56,410 --> 00:12:59,210 Speaker 1: Moore's brilliant book The Radium Girls. 173 00:13:00,770 --> 00:13:03,090 Speaker 3: We were taught how to point camel hair brushes with 174 00:13:03,130 --> 00:13:04,170 Speaker 3: our tongues. 175 00:13:04,170 --> 00:13:05,010 Speaker 1: Says Catherine. 176 00:13:05,370 --> 00:13:08,490 Speaker 3: We would first dip the brush into water, then into 177 00:13:08,490 --> 00:13:11,170 Speaker 3: the powder, and then point the ends of the bristles 178 00:13:11,210 --> 00:13:17,810 Speaker 3: between our teeth. Every line had to be just so. 179 00:13:16,130 --> 00:13:20,370 Speaker 1: The glowing powder got everywhere. When the girls were going 180 00:13:20,370 --> 00:13:23,490 Speaker 1: out on the town with their boyfriends, that sometimes wear 181 00:13:23,490 --> 00:13:26,970 Speaker 1: their party dress to work, because then at night the 182 00:13:27,090 --> 00:13:32,490 Speaker 1: dress would glow as they danced the Charleston. Sometimes at lunchtime, 183 00:13:32,650 --> 00:13:35,490 Speaker 1: the girls would go into a darkened room and paint 184 00:13:35,570 --> 00:13:40,890 Speaker 1: their faces with leftover radium, glowing eyebrows or mustaches. They'd 185 00:13:40,930 --> 00:13:48,410 Speaker 1: look in the mirror and laugh. A couple of years 186 00:13:48,450 --> 00:13:53,450 Speaker 1: after she started work at Radium Dial, Catherine developed a limp. 187 00:13:54,650 --> 00:13:57,290 Speaker 3: I began to feel pains in my left ankle which 188 00:13:57,370 --> 00:13:58,410 Speaker 3: spread up to my hip. 189 00:13:59,930 --> 00:14:03,810 Speaker 1: Other workers were getting health problems too, often with loose 190 00:14:03,930 --> 00:14:09,210 Speaker 1: teeth and sore gums. Katherine's friend Peg, for example, to 191 00:14:09,250 --> 00:14:12,050 Speaker 1: have a tooth taken out and the hole in her 192 00:14:12,170 --> 00:14:18,730 Speaker 1: gum just wouldn't heal. The dentist was baffled. One day, 193 00:14:18,770 --> 00:14:22,250 Speaker 1: the boss announced that the girls must no longer use 194 00:14:22,290 --> 00:14:25,250 Speaker 1: brushes to paint the dials. They had to switch to 195 00:14:25,410 --> 00:14:31,330 Speaker 1: glass pens instead. They weren't happy. The new pens, said Catherine, 196 00:14:31,410 --> 00:14:35,010 Speaker 1: were awkward, and clumsy. The brushes had been much more 197 00:14:35,050 --> 00:14:37,610 Speaker 1: precise because you could shape the tip of the brush 198 00:14:37,650 --> 00:14:41,090 Speaker 1: between your lips. But now they were being told that 199 00:14:41,330 --> 00:14:45,090 Speaker 1: anyone seen putting a brush to their lips would be sacked. 200 00:14:45,970 --> 00:14:50,690 Speaker 1: It was all very strange. Why would the company do that? Anyway, 201 00:14:50,730 --> 00:14:53,610 Speaker 1: it didn't last for long, the work was so much 202 00:14:53,650 --> 00:14:56,250 Speaker 1: slower with the new pens. In just a few months, 203 00:14:56,370 --> 00:15:00,410 Speaker 1: the boss had quietly dropped the whole idea. They were 204 00:15:00,450 --> 00:15:06,290 Speaker 1: back to using the brushes again. In nineteen twenty eight, 205 00:15:06,650 --> 00:15:09,730 Speaker 1: the local newspaper printed a story that shocked. 206 00:15:09,490 --> 00:15:14,050 Speaker 2: Them startling jump in the toll of radium poison victims 207 00:15:15,250 --> 00:15:16,330 Speaker 2: radium poison? 208 00:15:17,210 --> 00:15:21,210 Speaker 1: What was this? The report was about a court case 209 00:15:21,250 --> 00:15:25,170 Speaker 1: in New Jersey, another company that employed women to paint 210 00:15:25,250 --> 00:15:29,130 Speaker 1: radium on dials had just settled a lawsuit brought by 211 00:15:29,130 --> 00:15:34,370 Speaker 1: its workers. The early symptoms of poisoning among dial painters, 212 00:15:34,530 --> 00:15:38,890 Speaker 1: said the news report, often included loose teeth and gum decay. 213 00:15:39,930 --> 00:15:43,010 Speaker 1: It sounded to the girls in Ottawa very much like 214 00:15:43,090 --> 00:15:44,250 Speaker 1: what was happening to them. 215 00:15:45,170 --> 00:15:48,450 Speaker 3: The chill of fear was so depressing, says Catherine. We 216 00:15:48,490 --> 00:15:49,650 Speaker 3: could scarcely work. 217 00:15:51,370 --> 00:15:55,250 Speaker 1: But the boss at Radium Dial stepped in to reassure them. 218 00:15:55,650 --> 00:15:59,050 Speaker 1: Don't worry about these stories. He said, there's nothing to them. 219 00:15:59,490 --> 00:16:03,890 Speaker 1: You see, this other company uses radium paint made with mesthorium. 220 00:16:04,090 --> 00:16:08,090 Speaker 1: That must explain it. We use pure radium, and there's 221 00:16:08,090 --> 00:16:10,690 Speaker 1: no problem with that at all. But to put your 222 00:16:10,690 --> 00:16:14,450 Speaker 1: minds at rest, he says, we're bringing in medical experts 223 00:16:14,490 --> 00:16:18,770 Speaker 1: to test you. The experts took X rays and blood. 224 00:16:19,250 --> 00:16:22,810 Speaker 1: They ran a special test for radioactive breath that had 225 00:16:22,890 --> 00:16:27,050 Speaker 1: just been devised for that New Jersey court case. Time 226 00:16:27,130 --> 00:16:32,250 Speaker 1: went by and the girls heard nothing. They grew restive 227 00:16:32,490 --> 00:16:35,490 Speaker 1: and went to see the boss. Where are the results, 228 00:16:36,490 --> 00:16:39,610 Speaker 1: my dear girls, said the boss, If we were to give. 229 00:16:39,490 --> 00:16:41,890 Speaker 2: The medical reports to you, there would be a riot 230 00:16:41,890 --> 00:16:42,530 Speaker 2: in this place. 231 00:16:44,570 --> 00:16:47,530 Speaker 1: Catherine and her colleagues didn't really know what he meant 232 00:16:47,530 --> 00:16:53,210 Speaker 1: by that. Years later, they found out the test results 233 00:16:53,210 --> 00:16:57,130 Speaker 1: had shown that more than half the workers had absorbed 234 00:16:57,210 --> 00:17:02,610 Speaker 1: so much radiation from radium they were measurably radioactive themselves. 235 00:17:03,770 --> 00:17:06,010 Speaker 1: The boss had decided that the best way to deal 236 00:17:06,090 --> 00:17:10,330 Speaker 1: with that finding was to hush it up. Radium Dial 237 00:17:10,410 --> 00:17:13,570 Speaker 1: took out a full page advert in the local newspaper. 238 00:17:14,130 --> 00:17:18,050 Speaker 4: We have had thorough medical examinations made by technical experts 239 00:17:18,090 --> 00:17:21,210 Speaker 4: familiar with the conditions and symptoms of the so called 240 00:17:21,530 --> 00:17:26,930 Speaker 4: radium poisoning, nothing even approaching such symptoms or conditions has 241 00:17:27,010 --> 00:17:28,050 Speaker 4: ever been found. 242 00:17:29,010 --> 00:17:33,210 Speaker 1: It was a flat out lie, but it reassured the 243 00:17:33,210 --> 00:17:38,010 Speaker 1: workers for a while, even if Catherine's limp was getting 244 00:17:38,050 --> 00:17:41,410 Speaker 1: worse and her friend Peg was having more and more 245 00:17:41,450 --> 00:17:45,930 Speaker 1: problems with teeth coming out and gums not healing. Then 246 00:17:46,330 --> 00:17:50,890 Speaker 1: parts of PEG's jawbone started to come away in her mouth, 247 00:17:52,210 --> 00:17:55,450 Speaker 1: and she too got pain in her hips so bad 248 00:17:55,490 --> 00:18:00,730 Speaker 1: she could hardly walk. In nineteen twenty nine, six years 249 00:18:00,770 --> 00:18:06,450 Speaker 1: after she'd joined Radium dial, Peg collapsed at work. The 250 00:18:06,570 --> 00:18:11,330 Speaker 1: company sent her to hospital, died, and in the dead 251 00:18:11,330 --> 00:18:15,530 Speaker 1: of night men came to take her body away. But 252 00:18:15,690 --> 00:18:18,810 Speaker 1: PEG's brother in law was still in the hospital building 253 00:18:19,010 --> 00:18:21,250 Speaker 1: and he saw them. What do you think you're doing. 254 00:18:21,890 --> 00:18:24,530 Speaker 1: We're going to bury her, not like this, You're not. 255 00:18:25,090 --> 00:18:27,970 Speaker 1: She's a good Catholic girl, said the brother in law, 256 00:18:28,290 --> 00:18:31,850 Speaker 1: And she's going to have a mass and a funeral. Also, 257 00:18:31,890 --> 00:18:34,450 Speaker 1: we want an autopsy with our own doctor present, not 258 00:18:34,530 --> 00:18:39,130 Speaker 1: just yours, of course, said the company men. But when 259 00:18:39,170 --> 00:18:43,090 Speaker 1: the family's doctor arrived at the appointed time, he found 260 00:18:43,290 --> 00:18:47,250 Speaker 1: the autopsy had already been done. There must have been 261 00:18:47,290 --> 00:18:51,130 Speaker 1: some mix up. Could he at least examine what remained 262 00:18:51,170 --> 00:18:56,050 Speaker 1: of PEG's jawbone. No, the company's doctor had cut it away. 263 00:18:57,130 --> 00:19:02,890 Speaker 1: PEG's jawbone simply wasn't there. Once again, the boss's at 264 00:19:02,970 --> 00:19:06,050 Speaker 1: Radium Dial had decided the best way out of a 265 00:19:06,090 --> 00:19:10,610 Speaker 1: difficult situation was to lie about it. They told the 266 00:19:10,650 --> 00:19:13,650 Speaker 1: local newspaper they'd autopsid PEG's body and. 267 00:19:14,050 --> 00:19:16,770 Speaker 2: There was no visible indication of radium poisoning. 268 00:19:18,290 --> 00:19:22,290 Speaker 1: Catherine kept going to work at Radium Dial. She was 269 00:19:22,290 --> 00:19:25,970 Speaker 1: finding it harder and harder to move around. The doctors 270 00:19:26,010 --> 00:19:29,930 Speaker 1: in Ottawa said it was rheumatism. But for a company 271 00:19:30,010 --> 00:19:34,450 Speaker 1: dogged by suspicion that its work made people ill, having 272 00:19:34,490 --> 00:19:39,850 Speaker 1: such an obviously sick employee was a daily embarrassment. In 273 00:19:39,970 --> 00:19:44,330 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, the boss called Katherine into his office. 274 00:19:45,090 --> 00:19:48,250 Speaker 5: I'm sorry, Catherine, he said, we have to let you go. 275 00:19:49,050 --> 00:19:52,770 Speaker 5: Your work is satisfactory. It's your being here in a 276 00:19:52,890 --> 00:19:57,850 Speaker 5: limping condition. Everyone is talking about you limping. It's not 277 00:19:57,970 --> 00:19:59,650 Speaker 5: giving a very good impression. 278 00:19:59,290 --> 00:20:04,690 Speaker 1: To the company. After nine years working at Radium Dial, 279 00:20:05,330 --> 00:20:09,410 Speaker 1: Catherine no longer had a job, but she did have 280 00:20:09,450 --> 00:20:12,570 Speaker 1: a mission. She wanted to find out what was wrong 281 00:20:12,610 --> 00:20:15,490 Speaker 1: with her and whether or not the radium really was 282 00:20:15,530 --> 00:20:20,690 Speaker 1: to blame. If the doctors in small town Ottawa couldn't help, 283 00:20:20,890 --> 00:20:23,970 Speaker 1: she'd have to get another doctor from the city Chicago. 284 00:20:25,010 --> 00:20:28,970 Speaker 1: She sought out old workmates too, women who'd once painted 285 00:20:29,010 --> 00:20:34,090 Speaker 1: dials with her, who now had mysterious ailments, like Charlotte 286 00:20:34,130 --> 00:20:36,730 Speaker 1: with painful lump on her elbow the size of a 287 00:20:36,770 --> 00:20:42,130 Speaker 1: golf ball. The new doctor was baffled, But remember that 288 00:20:42,250 --> 00:20:45,850 Speaker 1: court case in New Jersey brought by other workers at 289 00:20:45,890 --> 00:20:50,130 Speaker 1: another dial painting factory. Doctors there had been learning more 290 00:20:50,170 --> 00:20:54,050 Speaker 1: about the various ways radium could affect the body, from 291 00:20:54,130 --> 00:21:00,050 Speaker 1: practice to cancers to anemia, symptoms that are hard to 292 00:21:00,090 --> 00:21:04,970 Speaker 1: predict and take time to appear gradually. The doctors had 293 00:21:04,970 --> 00:21:08,490 Speaker 1: been piecing together the clues. They'd been publishing articles in 294 00:21:08,570 --> 00:21:13,210 Speaker 1: medical jourmoernals. The doctors in Ottawa hadn't read those journals. 295 00:21:13,850 --> 00:21:17,930 Speaker 1: The new Chicago doctor sought them out, and what he 296 00:21:18,010 --> 00:21:24,250 Speaker 1: read left him in no doubt. Catherine and Charlotte went 297 00:21:24,370 --> 00:21:27,450 Speaker 1: back to Radium Dial to confront their old boss. 298 00:21:28,050 --> 00:21:31,490 Speaker 3: We have radium poisoning. We have legal advice that we 299 00:21:31,530 --> 00:21:32,970 Speaker 3: are entitled to compensation. 300 00:21:34,610 --> 00:21:39,930 Speaker 1: The boss looked at them. Catherine barely able to walk, 301 00:21:41,050 --> 00:21:45,170 Speaker 1: Charlotte with just one arm, the other with a lump 302 00:21:45,170 --> 00:21:47,530 Speaker 1: on the elbow had been amputated. 303 00:21:48,810 --> 00:21:52,370 Speaker 5: I don't think, said the boss, that there is anything 304 00:21:52,410 --> 00:21:52,890 Speaker 5: wrong with you. 305 00:21:56,010 --> 00:22:13,170 Speaker 1: Cautionary tales will be back in a moment. Brazil, nineteen 306 00:22:13,210 --> 00:22:18,690 Speaker 1: eighty seven. In Guyana, at the Vihilansia Sanitaria, the physicist 307 00:22:18,890 --> 00:22:22,210 Speaker 1: hurries to intercept workers from the fire department for they 308 00:22:22,210 --> 00:22:25,410 Speaker 1: can pick up that strange steel capsule from the chair 309 00:22:25,450 --> 00:22:29,250 Speaker 1: in the courtyard. Don't go near it, he says, definitely, 310 00:22:29,370 --> 00:22:32,130 Speaker 1: don't throw it in the river. He'll poison the whole city. 311 00:22:33,290 --> 00:22:36,410 Speaker 1: He persuades the fire department to do something else instead, 312 00:22:37,130 --> 00:22:42,970 Speaker 1: evacuate the building right away, don't let anyone in. With 313 00:22:43,050 --> 00:22:45,810 Speaker 1: the doctor, the physicist goes to the home of the 314 00:22:45,850 --> 00:22:50,490 Speaker 1: woman who brought the capsule in outside the junk dealer's yard. 315 00:22:51,010 --> 00:22:54,450 Speaker 1: He gets out his radiation meter. You have to get 316 00:22:54,450 --> 00:22:57,610 Speaker 1: out of this house now, he tells the dealer, and 317 00:22:57,690 --> 00:23:02,570 Speaker 1: your family, and your workers, and your neighbors. The dealer 318 00:23:02,650 --> 00:23:08,370 Speaker 1: takes some persuading, but they all reluctantly agree. The physicist 319 00:23:08,490 --> 00:23:11,170 Speaker 1: and the doctor go to the State Ministry of Health 320 00:23:11,570 --> 00:23:15,850 Speaker 1: and hear their powers of persuasion face their sternest test 321 00:23:15,890 --> 00:23:20,530 Speaker 1: against the bureaucratic gatekeepers. Who are these two random people 322 00:23:20,850 --> 00:23:24,650 Speaker 1: brandishing a mysterious device, demanding to see the minister with 323 00:23:24,730 --> 00:23:30,730 Speaker 1: no appointment straight away? They insist. When the minister sees them, 324 00:23:31,090 --> 00:23:34,330 Speaker 1: he can't get his head around what the physicist is 325 00:23:34,370 --> 00:23:37,370 Speaker 1: telling him, but he makes the calls he needs to 326 00:23:37,410 --> 00:23:42,330 Speaker 1: make to the right government agencies. They swing into action. 327 00:23:44,530 --> 00:23:48,690 Speaker 1: The glowing blue powder in the steel capsule is caesium 328 00:23:48,930 --> 00:23:54,210 Speaker 1: one three seven, used at the time in radiotherapy devices 329 00:23:54,570 --> 00:23:59,530 Speaker 1: for treating diseases such as cancer. If its radiation is 330 00:23:59,690 --> 00:24:03,810 Speaker 1: narrowly focused by masses of lead to a tiny little window, 331 00:24:04,450 --> 00:24:09,010 Speaker 1: it can cure. Take away the lead that contains the radiation, 332 00:24:09,210 --> 00:24:13,810 Speaker 1: and it will kill. The first thing they have to 333 00:24:13,850 --> 00:24:17,890 Speaker 1: do is stop that blue powder killing anybody else. They 334 00:24:17,890 --> 00:24:21,770 Speaker 1: bring a crane to the Vihilancia Sanitaria, where the capsule 335 00:24:21,850 --> 00:24:24,810 Speaker 1: still sits where the doctor left it, on a chair 336 00:24:24,890 --> 00:24:29,930 Speaker 1: in the courtyard. The crane carefully lowers a wide section 337 00:24:30,090 --> 00:24:34,890 Speaker 1: of sewer pipe around the chair. Then they pump the 338 00:24:34,930 --> 00:24:38,930 Speaker 1: sewer pipe full of concrete. They will absorb most of 339 00:24:38,930 --> 00:24:47,410 Speaker 1: the radiation. The biggest threat is contained. But where has 340 00:24:47,530 --> 00:24:52,010 Speaker 1: the glowing blue powder been? They trace everyone who carried 341 00:24:52,010 --> 00:24:56,250 Speaker 1: it around, the scavengers, the junk dealer's bus driver, brother, 342 00:24:56,970 --> 00:25:01,250 Speaker 1: the other brother, lady's father. They take their radiation meters 343 00:25:01,290 --> 00:25:05,730 Speaker 1: to every building the caesium was in. They evacuate forty 344 00:25:05,770 --> 00:25:11,570 Speaker 1: one houses. Seven are so bad contaminated there's no choice 345 00:25:11,570 --> 00:25:15,290 Speaker 1: but to knock them down. They take away the ruins 346 00:25:15,330 --> 00:25:21,290 Speaker 1: and the soil underneath in special drums. Two hundred and 347 00:25:21,450 --> 00:25:26,010 Speaker 1: seventy five lorry loads of waste will eventually be driven 348 00:25:26,050 --> 00:25:30,770 Speaker 1: off and securely buried. And there's plant life to check. 349 00:25:31,290 --> 00:25:33,930 Speaker 1: You wouldn't want to eat mangoes from the tree in 350 00:25:33,970 --> 00:25:37,930 Speaker 1: the scavenger's yard, and animals, pet dogs. It goes on 351 00:25:38,010 --> 00:25:42,730 Speaker 1: and on. After six weeks, a worker's radiation meter springs 352 00:25:42,850 --> 00:25:48,010 Speaker 1: randomly into life. It's a radioactive chicken crossing the road. 353 00:25:50,090 --> 00:25:53,410 Speaker 1: The authorities take over the local sports stadium and ask 354 00:25:53,650 --> 00:25:57,650 Speaker 1: residents to come by to be checked over. Thousands of 355 00:25:57,690 --> 00:26:01,730 Speaker 1: people queue up. Two hundred and forty nine set off 356 00:26:01,770 --> 00:26:06,610 Speaker 1: the radiation meters. About half are lucky, taking off their 357 00:26:06,610 --> 00:26:09,450 Speaker 1: clothes and having a shower is enough to get them 358 00:26:09,450 --> 00:26:15,010 Speaker 1: the all clear. The rest need medical care. The worst 359 00:26:15,010 --> 00:26:19,450 Speaker 1: affected have so much caesium in their bodies they're dangerously 360 00:26:19,570 --> 00:26:25,170 Speaker 1: radioactive themselves. They're corraled together in a sealed off room 361 00:26:25,210 --> 00:26:29,490 Speaker 1: in the hospital, including the dealer, his employees, his wife, 362 00:26:29,690 --> 00:26:33,690 Speaker 1: his brothers, little lader, the neighbor with the powder daubed 363 00:26:33,730 --> 00:26:38,570 Speaker 1: on her neck. Four of them will die within the month. 364 00:26:40,010 --> 00:26:43,970 Speaker 1: The nurses can't spend much time tending to them, it's 365 00:26:44,170 --> 00:26:47,850 Speaker 1: too risky. After a couple of weeks, the President of 366 00:26:47,930 --> 00:26:52,050 Speaker 1: Brazil pays a visit with his entourage. They're all in 367 00:26:52,130 --> 00:26:57,330 Speaker 1: protective suits and they keep their distance. We were there 368 00:26:57,370 --> 00:27:00,970 Speaker 1: in the corner, sitting on the mattress, remembers the bus 369 00:27:01,010 --> 00:27:05,090 Speaker 1: driver brother. It felt like we were people from another world. 370 00:27:06,410 --> 00:27:12,050 Speaker 1: The other brother, Laida's dad, can't stop crying. When Lada 371 00:27:12,130 --> 00:27:15,570 Speaker 1: asks why, he says he has a speck in his eye. 372 00:27:16,690 --> 00:27:23,730 Speaker 1: Don't worry, dad, she tells him, I'm fine. The caesium 373 00:27:23,850 --> 00:27:29,490 Speaker 1: Mongoiana made people sick straight away. The radium paint from 374 00:27:29,530 --> 00:27:34,130 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties and thirties had more insidious effects, and 375 00:27:34,210 --> 00:27:38,050 Speaker 1: the symptoms were disparate from Catherine's limp, to PEG's tooth, 376 00:27:38,530 --> 00:27:42,330 Speaker 1: to the lump on Charlotte's elbow. No wonder. It took 377 00:27:42,370 --> 00:27:47,930 Speaker 1: time at first for doctors to piece together what was happening. Radioactivity, 378 00:27:47,970 --> 00:27:51,650 Speaker 1: after all, was a recent discovery. What it meant for 379 00:27:51,770 --> 00:27:56,490 Speaker 1: human health was still unclear. The dial painters were among 380 00:27:56,530 --> 00:28:01,370 Speaker 1: the first to suffer its effects. In nineteen thirty eight, 381 00:28:01,930 --> 00:28:05,170 Speaker 1: seven years after she lost her job at Radium Dial, 382 00:28:05,810 --> 00:28:10,970 Speaker 1: Katherine Wolf Donahue sat in a courtroom. She was married now, 383 00:28:11,370 --> 00:28:17,130 Speaker 1: she had two small children. Her health had continued to decline. 384 00:28:17,330 --> 00:28:21,770 Speaker 1: Her jawbone broke apart at Easter as the priest gave 385 00:28:21,810 --> 00:28:27,490 Speaker 1: her holy communion. She weighed barely seventy pounds, but she 386 00:28:27,610 --> 00:28:31,050 Speaker 1: still had faith that the doctors would discover a cure, 387 00:28:32,010 --> 00:28:35,690 Speaker 1: and she had been fighting. She'd organized her former workmates, 388 00:28:35,930 --> 00:28:38,650 Speaker 1: she'd found a lawyer to represent them. Now she was 389 00:28:38,690 --> 00:28:42,010 Speaker 1: telling the court how Radium Dial had done away with 390 00:28:42,090 --> 00:28:44,930 Speaker 1: her glass pens and let the girls go back to 391 00:28:45,090 --> 00:28:49,170 Speaker 1: shaping their brushes in their lips, long after the company 392 00:28:49,250 --> 00:28:50,770 Speaker 1: was well aware of the danger. 393 00:28:51,770 --> 00:28:54,690 Speaker 3: That's the way this terrible poison got into our systems. 394 00:28:56,250 --> 00:29:02,450 Speaker 1: Catherine died age thirty five, just three weeks after the 395 00:29:02,530 --> 00:29:07,530 Speaker 1: court delivered its verdict, radium dial it found had shown 396 00:29:08,010 --> 00:29:14,130 Speaker 1: gross negligce. The court awarded Catherine and her co workers' compensation, 397 00:29:14,930 --> 00:29:19,890 Speaker 1: nowhere near enough, but the maximum the law allowed. The 398 00:29:20,010 --> 00:29:24,810 Speaker 1: case helped reshape laws on workplace safety. It helped scientists 399 00:29:24,930 --> 00:29:28,610 Speaker 1: understand the risks of working with radioactive materials and how 400 00:29:28,650 --> 00:29:31,450 Speaker 1: to manage them, just in time for the race to 401 00:29:31,490 --> 00:29:37,370 Speaker 1: develop the atomic bomb. By nineteen eighty seven, half a 402 00:29:37,410 --> 00:29:44,170 Speaker 1: century later, radiation was well understood. And yet in Guyanya 403 00:29:45,050 --> 00:29:49,130 Speaker 1: here were people carting caesium around in wheelbarrows and on 404 00:29:49,170 --> 00:29:52,570 Speaker 1: the bus, crumbling it between their fingers, daubing it on 405 00:29:52,650 --> 00:29:58,610 Speaker 1: their necks. How could it have happened to start with? 406 00:29:58,890 --> 00:30:04,170 Speaker 1: Of course, the medical device containing highly radioactive material really 407 00:30:04,170 --> 00:30:06,890 Speaker 1: shouldn't have been left in an abandoned building on a 408 00:30:06,970 --> 00:30:10,650 Speaker 1: derelict site. I was asking for trouble. But who's to 409 00:30:10,690 --> 00:30:15,370 Speaker 1: blame appears murky. The clinic's owners should have taken it away, 410 00:30:15,450 --> 00:30:18,130 Speaker 1: but they were caught up in a legal dispute about 411 00:30:18,170 --> 00:30:21,450 Speaker 1: who owned the building. A court said they couldn't go 412 00:30:21,570 --> 00:30:26,450 Speaker 1: in the country's nuclear regulators should have been kept informed 413 00:30:26,490 --> 00:30:32,290 Speaker 1: about where the device was. Nonetheless, nineteen grams of caesium, 414 00:30:32,850 --> 00:30:38,570 Speaker 1: just a spoonful fell through the administrative cracks. Nineteen grams 415 00:30:39,090 --> 00:30:45,410 Speaker 1: were enough to cause all those problems. Public communication was 416 00:30:45,450 --> 00:30:50,690 Speaker 1: a problem too. When investigators from the International Atomic Energy 417 00:30:50,730 --> 00:30:54,970 Speaker 1: Agency studied the aftermath, they said the cleanup itself went well, 418 00:30:55,490 --> 00:31:00,290 Speaker 1: but people were confused about continuing levels of risk. Rumors 419 00:31:00,370 --> 00:31:05,050 Speaker 1: ran riot. Some people panicked too much, like the hundreds 420 00:31:05,050 --> 00:31:08,810 Speaker 1: of protesters who threw stones to try to stop Lader's burial. 421 00:31:09,410 --> 00:31:12,610 Speaker 1: Though the little girl's body in its lead lined coffin 422 00:31:12,890 --> 00:31:17,330 Speaker 1: posed no threat to anyone, others were far too blase. 423 00:31:17,330 --> 00:31:23,290 Speaker 1: A one journalist recalls watching with incredulity a marriage right 424 00:31:23,450 --> 00:31:27,490 Speaker 1: next to one of the most contaminated sights. The bride 425 00:31:27,530 --> 00:31:32,370 Speaker 1: and groom exchanged vows as workers in protective suits walked 426 00:31:32,450 --> 00:31:37,250 Speaker 1: past with drum after drum of radioactive waste. Were they 427 00:31:37,290 --> 00:31:41,370 Speaker 1: not worried? Not at all? Said the groom, God will 428 00:31:41,410 --> 00:31:49,770 Speaker 1: protect us. Seventeen days passed between the scavengers taking the 429 00:31:49,850 --> 00:31:54,450 Speaker 1: radiotherapy device and the fire department nearly throwing it in 430 00:31:54,490 --> 00:31:58,930 Speaker 1: the river. So many people saw the glowing blue powder. 431 00:31:59,570 --> 00:32:02,410 Speaker 1: How is it possible that no one knew the glow 432 00:32:02,730 --> 00:32:08,850 Speaker 1: meant danger. But then why would they We'd never heard 433 00:32:08,850 --> 00:32:14,850 Speaker 1: of caesium radiation these things, says Ladi's mum In nineteen 434 00:32:14,850 --> 00:32:17,810 Speaker 1: eighty seven, there was no world wide web. They couldn't 435 00:32:17,850 --> 00:32:23,130 Speaker 1: google glowing blue stuff. So I don't want to criticize 436 00:32:23,130 --> 00:32:27,210 Speaker 1: the people who didn't know. Instead, I want to celebrate 437 00:32:27,250 --> 00:32:30,850 Speaker 1: the curious, the doctor who thought this looks like a 438 00:32:30,930 --> 00:32:35,530 Speaker 1: radiation burn, the physicist who found a radiation meter to borrow. 439 00:32:36,170 --> 00:32:40,290 Speaker 1: The junk dealer's wife who stopped to think, why are 440 00:32:40,370 --> 00:32:44,570 Speaker 1: we sick? What might explain it? Her first answer was wrong, 441 00:32:44,810 --> 00:32:48,050 Speaker 1: wasn't coca cola? But she was asking the right questions. 442 00:32:48,770 --> 00:32:52,610 Speaker 1: If she hadn't, who knows how much further the caesium 443 00:32:52,610 --> 00:32:58,890 Speaker 1: would have spread. Catherine Wolf and her colleagues asked the 444 00:32:58,930 --> 00:33:03,130 Speaker 1: right questions, too. The difference was that they had a 445 00:33:03,130 --> 00:33:06,570 Speaker 1: boss who wanted to keep them from the answers. It 446 00:33:06,610 --> 00:33:09,770 Speaker 1: seems bad when no one knows the truth, but it's 447 00:33:09,850 --> 00:33:15,330 Speaker 1: far worse when someone's trying to suppress it. Seven minutes, 448 00:33:15,810 --> 00:33:19,770 Speaker 1: said the scientists, was the longest the nurses could stay 449 00:33:19,850 --> 00:33:25,050 Speaker 1: by Lada's bedside without risking too much exposure to the caesium. 450 00:33:25,170 --> 00:33:29,410 Speaker 1: That was breaking down her body. One man didn't care 451 00:33:29,450 --> 00:33:34,810 Speaker 1: about getting more radiation. Lada's dad, so what he said, 452 00:33:35,650 --> 00:33:39,810 Speaker 1: if I die with my daughter. He didn't die with 453 00:33:39,850 --> 00:33:44,130 Speaker 1: his daughter, but he didn't live to old age. He 454 00:33:44,210 --> 00:33:50,090 Speaker 1: started to smoke endlessly, one cigarette after another. He died 455 00:33:50,130 --> 00:33:55,490 Speaker 1: of emphysema, or that's what the death certificate said. Others 456 00:33:55,530 --> 00:34:01,330 Speaker 1: say he died from grief or guilt. He never forgave 457 00:34:01,450 --> 00:34:06,090 Speaker 1: himself for bringing that powder home, but it isn't a 458 00:34:06,130 --> 00:34:09,570 Speaker 1: sin to be ignorant. Lada's dad had no reason to 459 00:34:09,570 --> 00:34:15,810 Speaker 1: blame himself, unlike the boss of Radium Dial, who seems 460 00:34:15,850 --> 00:34:26,730 Speaker 1: to have felt no guilt at all. Kate Moore's book 461 00:34:27,010 --> 00:34:30,410 Speaker 1: is titled The Radium Girls And Next Time I'll be 462 00:34:30,490 --> 00:34:34,810 Speaker 1: back with Kate Moore herself for a cautionary conversation about 463 00:34:34,810 --> 00:34:38,530 Speaker 1: their story. For a full list of all our sources, 464 00:34:38,850 --> 00:34:51,370 Speaker 1: please see the show notes at Timharford dot com. Cautionary 465 00:34:51,370 --> 00:34:54,290 Speaker 1: Tales is written by me Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. 466 00:34:54,770 --> 00:34:58,090 Speaker 1: It's produced by Alice Fines with support from Marilyn Rust. 467 00:34:58,570 --> 00:35:01,130 Speaker 1: The sound design and original music is the work of 468 00:35:01,170 --> 00:35:06,050 Speaker 1: Pascal Wise. Sarah Nix edited the scripts. It features the 469 00:35:06,130 --> 00:35:10,970 Speaker 1: voice talents of Ben Crowe, Melanie Guttridge Harford, Jemma Saunders 470 00:35:11,010 --> 00:35:14,730 Speaker 1: and rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have been possible 471 00:35:14,770 --> 00:35:18,850 Speaker 1: without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Ryan Dilly, Greta Cohne, 472 00:35:19,130 --> 00:35:24,490 Speaker 1: Litel Millard, John Schnaz, Eric's handler, Carrie Brody and Christina Sullivan. 473 00:35:25,290 --> 00:35:29,890 Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. It's recorded 474 00:35:29,930 --> 00:35:33,650 Speaker 1: at Wardoor Studios in London by Tom Berry. If you 475 00:35:33,890 --> 00:35:38,090 Speaker 1: like the show, please remember to share, rate and review, 476 00:35:38,610 --> 00:35:40,770 Speaker 1: tell your friends and if you want to hear the 477 00:35:40,810 --> 00:35:44,290 Speaker 1: show ad free, sign up for Pushkin Plus on the 478 00:35:44,330 --> 00:35:48,570 Speaker 1: show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, 479 00:35:48,770 --> 00:36:00,850 Speaker 1: slash plus