MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Leaf May 2018 Discussion • The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

gmw · 05-23-2018, 12:55 AM

Thanks, Bookpossum. I'm still in part 2 and the first case has been settled and the girls are spending their money. The Ottawa girls got a fright from that case but have apparently been appeased by Radium Dial for the time being. But what is particularly interesting to me through here is the report that Hoffman is still insisting the early problems were due to mesothorium, and even Martland - the girls' champion in the trial - who disagreed with Hoffman initially, is making sounds as if the other/normal form of radium (not mesothorium) is less damaging and maybe the girls might recover. Which would seem to add some credibility (if not actual support) to Radium Dial's assertion that their girls would be okay.

So everyone, not just the companies, are still underestimating the long term effects of radium. (In the 1920s they obviously didn't have quite the same cynical world view that we have developed since then - although to little avail it might seem.) But what I'm getting at here is that even later the situation was probably not as clear as this book makes out, and some of that even comes from people that supported the girls in Newark. I am still waiting for Moore to reveal to me that the contents of the Radium Dial medical assessments; that she's holding me in suspense makes me think the company knows more than it's saying (which seems likely). But here, again, it would be interesting to have some idea of the real, human motives behind it all, some idea what they actually believed versus what they simply thought they might get away with (which, in the light of the Newark trial, seems a peculiarly foolish assumption).

05-23-2018, 12:55 AM	#80
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Thanks, Bookpossum. I'm still in part 2 and the first case has been settled and the girls are spending their money. The Ottawa girls got a fright from that case but have apparently been appeased by Radium Dial for the time being. But what is particularly interesting to me through here is the report that Hoffman is still insisting the early problems were due to mesothorium, and even Martland - the girls' champion in the trial - who disagreed with Hoffman initially, is making sounds as if the other/normal form of radium (not mesothorium) is less damaging and maybe the girls might recover. Which would seem to add some credibility (if not actual support) to Radium Dial's assertion that their girls would be okay. So everyone, not just the companies, are still underestimating the long term effects of radium. (In the 1920s they obviously didn't have quite the same cynical world view that we have developed since then - although to little avail it might seem.) But what I'm getting at here is that even later the situation was probably not as clear as this book makes out, and some of that even comes from people that supported the girls in Newark. I am still waiting for Moore to reveal to me that the contents of the Radium Dial medical assessments; that she's holding me in suspense makes me think the company knows more than it's saying (which seems likely). But here, again, it would be interesting to have some idea of the real, human motives behind it all, some idea what they actually believed versus what they simply thought they might get away with (which, in the light of the Newark trial, seems a peculiarly foolish assumption).