Netflix 'Radium Girls'

[phillip ridley]

Just watched a movie on Netflix called Radium Girls based off of the company American Radium back in the mid-20's. This is a great watch to better understand what mainly women experienced around the world back then and what it took for them to stand up against the big corporations for the dangers of Radium.

[214270Explorer]

There is also a nice article at Wkipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls

Very sad what those poor gals experienced.

[phillip ridley]

Yes, indeed! Per American Radium, the dial workers were paid 1 cent per dial. Heck, they even had a "Radium water" drink for the employee of the month...

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by phillip ridley

Just watched a movie on Netflix called Radium Girls based off of the company American Radium back in the mid-20's. This is a great watch to better understand what mainly women experienced around the world back then and what it took for them to stand up against the big corporations for the dangers of Radium.

Just added it to my watch list. Thanks, Phillip!
dP

[SunTzu]

I know the story well. The old factory in NJ, long gone, is not far from where I live. I'll add it to my watch list.

[ancientmariner]

Originally Posted by phillip ridley

Yes, indeed! Per American Radium, the dial workers were paid 1 cent per dial. Heck, they even had a "Radium water" drink for the employee of the month...

Yes, incredibly radio-active water was considered a healthy drink in the 1920's.
You could buy Radon bulbs for your Soda Syphon:
https://www.sparklets.net/sparklets/scg-bur-05/

[Mendota]

They didn't really know better back then, but if you REALLY want to be shocked, watch the HBO series "Chernobyl." That is horrifying because by this time they were completely aware of what was happening and the very real dangers that this radioactive material posed to millions of people throughout Russia, eastern Europe, and Scandinavia and yet they kept it hidden from everyone. It's so sad to watch because they knew exactly what they were doing and what was happening.

Satellite imagery shows the fires are still actively smoldering and burning in the reactor zone to this day.

[spoilsofwar01]

I saw this on you tube a few years ago, really shocking to watch, I believe this is why a law was passed in the 60's making it mandatory to have all radium dials replaced as watches came in for service, hence service replacement dials,

I have a feeling I may be corrected on this fact?

[donq]

They used to have x-ray machines in shoe stores so you could see how your feet looked inside your shoes!
How insane was that?

[Styles Bitchley]

As a teen in the fifties, my old man used to go to the doctor’s office so he could radiate his face and neck to treat his acne. Throat cancer set in by the time he was in his fifties and took him not long after. Thankfully, science has come a long way.

[Dan S]

I think it's fair to say that nobody at that time new more about the effects of radium than Marie Curie, double Nobel Prize laureate, and she died of a blood disease we now know to be associated with radiation exposure.

It's important to understand that at around the turn of the century, she and others discovered that radiation preferentially killed tumor cells, and it was used successfully to treat cancer. These effects were dramatic and immediate. It was a magical cure. Just imagine how this was seen at the time. And she wasn't wrong, radiation therapy is still used for some cancers obviously.

The deleterious effects of radiation were harder to isolate, since they were long-term and stochastic.

[MILGAUSS88]

I wanted to like this movie, but it seemed to have a political opinion on everything, quite a lot that was not related to the Radium girls. And seemed to over emphasize every wrong, which made it feel to preachy to me.

[MILGAUSS88]

Just thought I would add a photo, of a Radium dial for those who are unfamiliar.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[SunTzu]

Originally Posted by Styles Bitchley

As a teen in the fifties, my old man used to go to the doctor’s office so he could radiate his face and neck to treat his acne. Throat cancer set in by the time he was in his fifties and took him not long after. Thankfully, science has come a long way.

My grandfather sold shoes in the 1940's and my father would go to the store and loved playing with the fluoroscope to see his foot inside the shoe.

[SunTzu]

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

Just thought I would add a photo, of a Radium dial for those who are unfamiliar.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

I have an entire military collection of watches with radium.