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

gmw · 05-26-2018, 04:36 PM

I was not looking for excuses so much as a way of understanding - but yes, I do think there are legitimate excuses to be found in the earlier part of the situation.

The frustration from my side is that you seem to insist on looking at the situation with modern eyes. Radiation was new then. They simply had no idea. Can you imagine anyone in the 1920s (okay, so before that really, by the 1920s these women were already dying, they just didn't know it then) deciding it might be worth taking a decade of study before they let anyone near this stuff? That's what it would have required. We have trouble doing that now.

This is a cautionary tale, but you have to understand the real situation if you hope to learn the real cautions. The corporate shenanigans where appalling, but there is a lot more to this story than that.

05-26-2018, 04:36 PM	#90
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	I was not looking for excuses so much as a way of understanding - but yes, I do think there are legitimate excuses to be found in the earlier part of the situation. The frustration from my side is that you seem to insist on looking at the situation with modern eyes. Radiation was new then. They simply had no idea. Can you imagine anyone in the 1920s (okay, so before that really, by the 1920s these women were already dying, they just didn't know it then) deciding it might be worth taking a decade of study before they let anyone near this stuff? That's what it would have required. We have trouble doing that now. This is a cautionary tale, but you have to understand the real situation if you hope to learn the real cautions. The corporate shenanigans where appalling, but there is a lot more to this story than that. Last edited by gmw; 05-26-2018 at 04:38 PM.