WEBVTT - The Radium Girls 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.760 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:20.320 There's Charles W. COVID Bryant. Do you want me to 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.040 to intro you like that? Chuck? Well, I guess the 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.640 cats out of the bag. Yeah, we wanted to start 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:28.000 this episode off with the p s A. I have 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.600 COVID everybody, and uh, the reason I'm making this so 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:36.640 public is a couple of reasons. One to remind everyone 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:42.280 that we're not out of the woods yet. I'm vaccinated fully, Um, 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:46.400 this is almost likely the delta variant. There's no way 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.520 to prove that because I've done a lot of research there. 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.080 They're only testing for variants and like specific places than 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.560 using statistics to like blow that out to the whole mhmm. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.080 But it is the it just like this week it 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:04.400 was breaking news that it dropped from about the vaccine 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:09.440 effective to against the delta variant. Yeah, I mean that 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.639 would that alone would make me suspect that's what it is. Yeah, 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.000 And it's the most dominant strain. It's most likely to 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:19.080 bust the vaccine. Uh. I went out of town over 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.399 the weekend with friends and like of that group have 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.440 COVID now so and they were vaxed. So, oh my god, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:28.800 it is no joke. Everyone, We're not out of the woods. 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:33.400 Please keep taking it seriously. Please get vaccinated if you haven't, 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.639 And if you can use this, I know we're probably 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.440 preaching to the choir mainly, but if you can use 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.720 this example to try and convince someone you love to 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:46.759 get vaccinated that is hesitant, then that's why I'm saying this. Well, Chuck, 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:48.960 I know Jerry would never come on and say this, 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:53.200 but we're very very glad that you're doing okay, and 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.360 we love you very much. We're very proud of you. 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.920 Jerry doesn't express herself emotionally like that, not like you do. 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.720 Know I'm well known for that kind of thing. But 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.840 the good news and the final reason I mentioned it 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.200 is is also get vaccinated because it is doing at 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.840 least part of its job, and that I had a 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.760 couple of days of feeling pretty bad with a cold 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.560 and have had four days now and feeling pretty good, 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.280 and it is it is doing its job and keeping 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.160 it very mild. And uh, I took off a couple 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.880 of categories where if I wasn't vaccinated, it may not 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.399 be so mild. Yeah, you know that. That's why you're 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.480 l u c k y. You ain't got no alum 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.280 bi you lucky? All right, Well, now we can talk 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:42.799 about some not so lucky young women. That's true. I'm 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:44.840 hats off to you for that. P. S A too. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.920 By the way, as I never finished, I never finished, Chuck, 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.440 there's Jerry Jerome Roland over there. Stuff you should not. 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:55.240 That's right. So now you can take over my former 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.360 duties of introing the episode. Well, I mean, it's just funny. 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.680 This is another are not funny. But I feel like 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.640 we're diving more and more into sort of the horrors 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.680 of not only just the workplace. But I feel like 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.120 we've covered a lot more over the past couple of years, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.600 these situations in America's history where corporations have tried to 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.200 just bury things that made them look bad at the 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.400 expense and the lives of people that work for them. Yeah, 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.960 we've been examining how terrible life is without government regulations. 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:33.400 That's right. Another p s A. It's true. And and 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.200 like you said, we're talking about some unfortunate women who 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:41.960 um were gravely mistreated in part because of like the 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.480 place and time that they occupied. But also because they 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.200 were women, and because there were again no workplace safety 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.160 laws or anything like that. Um. But they despite you know, 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.760 everything that was stacked against them, including things like their gender. Um. 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:04.520 They they basically rose up and and established some of 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:10.600 the first successful lawsuits against employers for basically workplace abuse 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:15.760 or at the very least workplace um dereliction of duty 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:20.080 of the employer to look out for workers safety. I 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.719 think that's the technical way to put it. Yeah, and 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.719 you know, we're talking about the Radium Girls, and uh, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.240 there was a movie about this. It's not we we 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.520 loved the hundreds of emails about the Ghost of how 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.159 do you pronounce it again? The Brotherhood of the Beast, 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.440 Brotherhood of the Wolf. That was the name of the movie. 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.960 And apparently I'm the only ship. Yeah, the only person 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:46.080 who has never seen that movie. Yeah. Same here, same here, 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:48.719 Like I think we are the only two. I don't. 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.800 I can't remember getting more emails about a single thing 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:54.560 than that one. Yeah, they're literally still coming in and 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.080 I uh, I do remember once I saw the trailer, 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:58.600 was like, oh, I know that movie a little bit, 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.800 but I didn't know this worry. But there was a 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.960 Radium Girls movie from three years ago that I sort 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:10.200 of half watched today. Um, it's I don't want to 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.039 I don't want to disparage anyone because filmmakers tried to 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.839 get the word out about an important event in history. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.479 But I'll just say that the Roger Ebert dot com 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:21.480 website gave it one and a half stars. And that's 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:27.359 the only thing I'll say out of how many stars, Wow, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.800 it was not very You got a one and a 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.960 half percent? That is wow. Yeah, I I I did 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.120 not watch that one. I haven't read the book yet either. 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:38.440 But um, one of the problems with taking up something 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:40.279 like this is, like it was the same thing with 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.320 Henriett Alas when we did our episode of Kila Cells, 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:47.000 where it's it's really hard to kind of dig past 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:51.520 the wall of journalism surrounding like the release of a 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.520 popular book and anything that is written in that book, 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.080 and that books take on the story. All of that 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:03.520 stuff basically be ums it like that's it, that's that's 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:05.880 just that, that's this person said this and this person 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.560 played this role, and you know it just becomes like 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.400 the story, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.880 Fortunately for Radium Girls. And I'm not taking away from 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.479 Kate Moore's book at all. Um, from everything I've seen, 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:19.760 it was extremely well researched and like it did a 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.880 really great job of bringing this to the to the 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.479 Forefront team. Um. But fortunately there's also like a lot 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:32.440 of scholarship that was written and researched before that that 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.040 still exists on the internet, so you can kind of 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.279 like get into some other details too. Besides, well, the 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:40.280 book said this, and the book said that, and then 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.720 also fortunately we had our buddy Dave Ruse help us 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:46.640 out with some research too, and Dave hates books, he does, 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.919 He's always burning books now. David, in fact, is the 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:54.240 one that said we should definitely mention Kate Moore's seventeen 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:58.400 book The Radium Girls, that we should have a sound 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:02.080 effect for Colin's. Now, what if we had, like, um, 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.440 one of those in studio chorus as they go colon, 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:10.800 they're colon. Be great? Okay, we need a barbershop quartet, Yeah, 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.040 that'd be good. The Radium Girls in search sound effect 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:21.720 The Dark Story of America's Shining Women. Yes, but not one, 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:27.320 but two punts the Dark Story America's Shining Women. So 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.640 the whole thing about Radium and the Radium Girls, and 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.360 that's what the press dubbed them. They also, I believe, 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.720 called themselves the Society of the Living Dead, which is 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.240 some pretty serious gallows humored considering like the state in 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:46.520 shape that they were in. Um. They they were. Um. 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:50.640 They kind of came out of this era where Radium, 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.520 like the nineteen teens, the early nineties, the first the 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.960 first Radium Girls are actually two sets, as we'll see, 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.800 but they came out as era where three Radium was 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.880 there three. Yeah, there was another factory that we're not 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.720 even gonna have time to talk about. Okay, well, let's 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.520 say there's what what decade was that one. I think 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:11.000 it was the same decade. I think it was just 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.320 another factory that you know, we just can't do a 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.560 two hour show, I got you. So they well we're 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.800 well on our way already. So um. But they existed 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.360 in a in an era where radium was seen as 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:26.440 this thing that was just this amazing cure, all tonic, 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.960 a wonder of nature that was um put in all 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.280 sorts of different products from cigarettes to condoms to there's 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.719 a water called Rata thor that was irradiated water, that 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:44.000 radioactive water that you would drink to get the radioactivity 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.400 in your body, because it was you know, thought to 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:51.000 give you um like health, energy, vitalization, cure all sorts 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.880 of diseases. It said that it bathed the stomach and 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.920 liquid sunshine and all of this was pretty new stuff 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:02.120 because it wasn't um more than two decades before, uh 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:07.080 that Marie Curry and Pierre Cury Um discovered radium in 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.840 the first place. Back. Yeah, I mean they discovered it, 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.000 and I think they even named it. I think Latin 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.840 radius means ray, and they knew that it emitted rays 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.080 of energy even at that time, and you know, or 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.000 very early on, they started using radiation to try and 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.640 help treat cancer, Like hey, let's put this in a 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:28.960 lead box and cut a hole in it and then 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:33.120 put that whole over the human body, like aiming it 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:36.760 towards where a tumor might be. Like very obviously rudimentary stuff, 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.720 and you have to make up boop boopo sound the 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:42.520 whole time. That was kind of one of the roles 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.440 of the technician at the time, that's right, Uh. And 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.559 you should have seen the audition tapes. Some people played 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:55.160 zero rhythm. It would be like, Pep'm sorry, you're well qualified, 0:09:55.240 --> 0:10:01.959 but uh so Cury. Actually she died um in four 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.720 from a plastic anemia, which is a bone marrow disorder 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.000 caused by radiation exposure. So they knew that it was 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:13.000 dangerous and uh but it was still like like you said, 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.160 it was in the you know, it was known as 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.480 a cure for the living dead in that ratath or water, 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:23.640 and I mean basically used for everything from gout to fatigue. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:25.680 And it was just one of those crazy times in 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:27.800 American history where now we look back and we're like, 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:32.320 this is just nuts. But back then they didn't know well. 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:34.480 So there were two tacks. From what I could tell, 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.600 there was the beginnings of um academic scholarship, and both 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.199 of the curies had some sort of suspicion, and there 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.600 was this idea that there was easily you could be 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.559 exposed to too much. You didn't want to have too 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.240 much radium, but a little bit was good for you. 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.400 But then there was also this academic tack that was like, no, 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:55.280 this stuff might not be good at all, like we 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.280 should really be careful with this. But the popular, the 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.320 popular idea of it read in the newspapers, or you know, 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:05.480 maybe even what your doctor thought about it. Um all 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:10.640 came from radium research that was almost exclusively underwritten and 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.280 in a lot of cases carried out by companies that 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.800 made their money off of radium. Like they were just 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:22.080 touting this stuff as an amazing wonder element basically um 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.120 and and so there was like almost these two overlapping 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.400 worlds that weren't connected at the time in our understanding 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.800 of radium in like the nineteen teens and nineteen twenties, right, 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.480 So one of the other kind of cool and interesting 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.800 things about radium is that it can make things glow 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.439 in the dark. And glow in the dark is very 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:44.840 sort of like who cares now, it's still kind of fun, 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.600 But in the nineteen twenties, glow in the dark was 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.360 a very big deal. It was basically the future and 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.040 kind of space age. And if you had a glow 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.280 in the dark watch or a glow in the dark clock, 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:01.640 then you felt cool basically because you could see that 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.439 thing in the dark. And so of course these companies 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:09.680 wanted to start painting watch faces and clocks with radium, 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.120 and they've got young women and sometimes even girls as 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.240 young as like fourteen years old to do this stuff. Yeah, 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.160 I think the first company at first they were working 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.600 on military clocks and military dials like you might put 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.920 in an airplane or something. And the first company I 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.439 think that was established to do this was United States 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.760 Radium back in nineteen sixteen in New Jersey, Orange, New Jersey, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.480 I think. And like you said, they hired young girls, 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.280 very very young girls. Um. I think the oldest one 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.880 I saw by far was twenty eight, but for the 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:44.280 most part they were in their teens to early early twenties. 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.559 And this was like a really big deal job like 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.520 that was very highly paying. I think they were in 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:57.880 the women who painted radium or watch dials with radium paint. 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:00.240 We're in the top five percent of earner is in 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.559 America at the time. This is a factory job. Yeah. 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.240 And then also its prestigious to from what I saw, Yeah, 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.679 the movies and you know, God, I don't know if 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:11.880 it's accurate or not. I'm gonna say what the movie said. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.440 The movie said that they were paid a penny per face, 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.079 and a high earner could crank out two day, So 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.439 that's about to two dollars a day. Okay, so that's 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.000 like a million dollars today. I think that's also what 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:30.000 the movie said, Well a million dollars double that, and 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.439 that's about what a gram of radium cost. Uh yeah, 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.200 and today's dollars that is, I think it's like a 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.040 hundred grand a graham in the nineties for a graham 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.199 of radium. So they were they were they were themselves 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.960 highly paid, but they also, um, we're working with what 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.720 was at the time the most expensive material on Earth um, 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.760 and it makes sense that it would be so expensive, 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.600 Like radium is really rare. It's super radioactive, but it's 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.760 really um. It occurs in very small amounts, which kind 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:02.880 of let you realize how radioactive it is. That you know, 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.160 it's a daughter isotope of uranium. Whereas uranium decays, one 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.320 of the things that it becomes is is radium UM 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:14.120 and in uranium or I think the curies when they 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.080 first um discovered radium, they they found that after they 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:20.760 took uranium out of this or pitch blend, which we 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.720 talked about in the uranium mining episode, that the pitch 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.600 blend was still radioactive, So like what else is in here? 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.560 And out of ten tons of uranium or they managed 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.440 to extract one milligram, So it would make sense, especially 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:38.400 at the time, that it would cost a couple million 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.520 dollars for a single gram of that stuff. Yeah, and 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.200 so these girls and young women were, uh, this stuff 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.480 was getting in their hair, it was getting on their clothes. Um. 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:50.840 It was sort of a badge of honor because you 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.280 would go out that night dancing or something and you 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.120 would glow a little bit. Uh. They would even purposely 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.920 put it on their teeth. Sometimes they were called ghost girls, 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.720 and it was it was. It wasn't a fad in 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.000 that it was widespread because only a select few like 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.160 had their hands on it. But I think that's one 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.280 of the reason the girls like these jobs is because 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.200 they could go out and like attract attention because they 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.560 had this glow in their hair and on their dresses. Yeah. 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.040 I think also people knew that they were working with radium, 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:28.880 and radium at the time was like um, Missy Elliott 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.800 mixed with ecstasy back in the late nineties, like as 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.280 cool as it got, you know what I mean? Goodness, thanks, 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.440 I'm just trying out some new stuff. How's it going. 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.160 It's good. In fact, I think maybe we should take 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.080 a break. I need to re examine that analogy so 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.160 I can really fully grasp it. All right, you just 0:15:46.280 --> 0:16:11.200 let it sink a buddy, So, Chuck, I gotta say 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.440 before we start back again, you don't seem like you 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:17.240 have COVID. Are you faking? I'm not faking. Uh, I 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.440 am a little spacey though. You're doing great. I mean 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.960 you've researched an episode of stuff you should know, probably 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.520 the most challenging podcast on the planet, and you're presenting 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.440 it like just like an ace. So hats off to 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:35.360 you again. Well, thanks man, you got it. So um. 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.120 You were saying before that the radium girls were covered 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.800 in um radioactive dust, and they were because they would 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.440 mix their own paint, uh, And they worked with a 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.960 specific kind of paint called un Dark. It was a 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.120 proprietary blend where they would mix them um. They would 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:52.960 basically mix it with water and a little bit of 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.000 solvent and create their own paint from this radium dust. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.280 So radium dust was like all over the place, which 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.840 is bad enough. You know, you can get pretty radioactive 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:05.800 for me exposed radium radium dust like that, but it 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.840 was far far worse in those working conditions because they 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:14.760 were actually ingesting the radium through the paint as well. Yeah. 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:16.919 I mean this is where if you think this already 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.760 sounds like a workplace violation, this is where it just 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.280 gets bonkers because they would actually, you know, if you're 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:28.199 painting one millimeter wide number on a watch, uh, and 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.560 I think the watch faces themselves were like three and 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.240 a half centimeters, you have to have a tiny little 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.200 point on the end of that paint brush. And painters 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.240 know one way you can achieve this is something called 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:42.320 lip pointing, which is when you dip the the brush 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.320 and the paint, in this case radium, and then you 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:48.040 put it in your mouth and just sort of press 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.000 it down with your lips to make that point finer. 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.480 And they were doing this with radium. They were literally ingesting, 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.520 like orally ingesting radium in their mouths, which means orally 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:06.680 and in inviting cancer into their bodies unknowingly, yes, which 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.719 is some pretty um. I mean, that's not good, like 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.679 when you're ingesting the paint itself. Apparently, there was a 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.800 guy who worked for Prudential, the insurance company back in 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.719 published a paper. His name is fred Hoffman, Frederick Hoffman, 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.920 and he calculated that, um, the radium girls who who 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.600 painted these watch faces. Because of that lip pointing technique, 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.800 they were ingesting something like one and three quarter grahams 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.280 of this paint every day. It's a lot of money 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.320 had to lip point so much. It is a lot 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:42.159 of money. From the viewpoint of the of the factory owners, 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:43.640 you'd think they would have been like, no, we gotta 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.119 stop that, because that is a lot of paint. But 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.520 that's also a lot of radium that they were taking 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.040 into And the big problem with that is not just 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.720 that you know, it's getting inside of you now and 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.000 it's burning a hole right through you. It's not really 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:02.440 doing that. Radium is a an alkali earth metal, and 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.680 it just so happens that calcium is also an alkali 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.560 earth metal into your bones. They're they're the same thing. 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.720 Your body doesn't differentiate between the two, and we our 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.720 bodies are set up to divert calcium basically from the 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.680 bloodstream right to the bones to help build strong bones, 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.199 you know, um, And we do the same thing with 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.879 radium to our bodies too. So when you ingest radium, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.840 it enters your blood stream and it goes right to 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.480 your bones and it sets about screwing you up big time. 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.520 From that point on. Yeah, And apparently some of these 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.320 young women were saying, you know, they're asking questions. Early on, 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:40.000 they were saying, like this, it's bad for you. Can 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.280 it hurt you? Um? And the you know, the US 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.720 Radium Corporation was I mean, they started covering up very 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:48.880 early what was going on. They were doing their own 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.320 research and they said and of course the people that 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:54.239 were making that radium water did the same thing. They 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:56.679 would have They would hire out these private companies to 0:19:56.720 --> 0:20:00.280 do this research basically and say everything's fine, and said, 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.960 you know, ingesting a little bit is just fine. It 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.840 will pull a rose in your cheek and it's great. 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.040 And I guess they just sort of full stop there. 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.880 They didn't talk much about how much ingesting a graham 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.960 every time you did that over time would be like 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.120 over a period of years. Um. I think in nineteen 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.639 sixteen they put out their own publication UM from the 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:27.399 Radium Publishing Company that said, uh, the physiological action of 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:33.280 radium sounds not unlike a fairy tale, right, which is weird. 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:37.760 And they said that the red blood cell count surges, um, 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:40.880 so you you will actually kind of seem a little healthier. 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.400 I couldn't find that anywhere. From what I saw you, Um, 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.600 it causes hemo license, which is like the rupturing of 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.480 red blood cells. But um, this is the kind of 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.760 stuff that like these publications were peddling and doctors in 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:57.720 the public we're just taking it wholesale. Um. And that 0:20:57.800 --> 0:20:59.920 was where that idea that Radium was good for you 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.840 came from, was from publications from people like the Radium 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:08.040 Publishing Company. There was just a lot of credulity at 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:11.399 the time, I guess, um, which is weird because this 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:15.119 is also like one of the most avaricious periods in 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.560 American history as well. What does that mean? It means 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.280 that like people were praying on other people for for 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:24.400 profit and money, that like that you would do anything 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:32.000 for a dollar, you know, avarice. Okay, makes sense. In fact, 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:34.800 I will, man, I'll let that one slide. And I 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:36.600 don't know if I've said this or not. I know 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.320 Jerry wouldn't, but we're really glad you're doing that. Uh. 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.480 And it's funny in that factory, they didn't say anything 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:45.760 about the fact that, like, oh, you know, can this 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:47.800 be dangerous? Because I've noticed all the men that are 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:52.159 working around Radium are wearing these big lead smocks and aprons, 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.200 and uh, they're handling this stuff with ivory tipped tongs. 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:58.840 What's when we're putting this in our mouth? And they're like, 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:02.080 don't worry about that. Yeah, And it wasn't so at 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:07.120 at Us Radium in Orange, New Jersey. It was it's 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.719 it was part of the corporate culture to basically just 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:15.679 treat it really cavalierly. Like even the head chemist, um 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:20.800 Edwin Lehman, who would pay dearly for his cavalierness, was 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:23.480 recorded by an investigator who will talk about in a 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.159 little bit um as as basically just handling blumps of 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:32.080 radium or or like radi like radium powder without any 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.720 kind of gloves, no protection, no lead apron anything, and 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.480 just kind of just you know, scoffing at the idea 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.480 that that it was it was, you know, dangerous. So 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.600 you know, some people there knew that it was dangerous 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:46.680 and treated it so. But the corporate culture in that 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.480 company and in particular was that, you know, don't be 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:53.399 don't be ridiculous, who cares, Stop stop talking, stop asking 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:56.119 questions kind of thing. Yeah, So this next part I'm 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:59.280 going to issue a trigger warning because it's certainly got 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:03.199 me with my tooth fears. So if you have dental 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:07.399 fears and tooth fears, uh, just be warned. Uh. This 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:09.400 is from Kate Moore's book and it's about the very 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:12.960 first I think the first young woman to fall ill 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:16.119 at the U s r C. Her name was Molly. 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:19.679 I don't know if it's Maggia or Maggia. And this 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:23.240 is she was twenty four years old. She said she 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:26.879 felt like she was about ninety. Um, she had this really, 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:28.439 I mean she ached all over, but she had this 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:32.640