|
Given that the girls also lived in the same area at the time they were employed, they had a wide range of things in common (or potentially in common). Work was not the only possibility, and even if it was work, it might not have been the radium. This is one of the reasons why establishing the same or similar problems with the women in Ottawa was so important: it provided the crucial evidence that it was actually the radium. Otherwise it might have been the paint on the walls or furniture or something.
(Even when Martland proved there was radium in the bones, he hadn't absolutely proved it was the radium causing the damage - it was strong evidence but it wasn't conclusive because no one at that time really understood the mechanism.)
I guess you're right, agreement doesn't seem likely. I just think it helps to realise how far we have come in the last century, and some of that is thanks to what these women went through.
|