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Reminds me of this article also about NJ: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/nyregion/living-with-a-radium-nightmare.html https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/nyr

Reminds me of this article also about NJ: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/nyregion/living-with-a-radium-nightmare.html https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/nyregion/living-with-a-ra... “Half a mile away, in Orange, is the abandoned factory where the U.S. Radium Corporation made luminous watch dials from 1915 to 1926. At the time, nobody knew radium was dangerous; it was only after women who worked at the factory began getting sick and dying of cancer that the Essex County medical examiner, Dr. Harrison A. Martland, spotted the connection. By that time, soil tainted with radioactive tailings from the factory had been used to fill in low-lying areas of Essex County -- a total of 210 acres in Glen Ridge, Montclair and West Orange. It was not until 1981 that the E.P.A. -- as part of a national initiative -- conducted an aerial survey of the 12 square miles around the U.S. Radium plant. Ground surveys over the next two years confirmed the presence of dangerous gamma radiation, and the problem was first revealed publicly at the end of 1983.”

natmaka 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  Reminds me of Shoe Store Fluoroscopes. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2011/ph241/birer2/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2011/ph241/birer2/
  - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
    Would you believe me, if I told you that I used a machine like that as a child, somewhere between 1975 to 1978 in the then capital of West-Germany? In a store of the chain Salamander. As a curiosity, because we wanted to wriggle our toes in there.
- simulate-me 5y ago
  There were “match girls” in England. Their jaws rotted from inhaling phosphorous in match factories. Very sad.
rcurry 5y ago
There are so many terrifying stories about stuff like this. I don’t remember the site, but there’s a website where you can research superfund allocations and it’s really frightening to learn that the parking lot two hundred meters from where you work in NJ was the site of a massive insecticide dump that used to spontaneously ignite.
- MerelyMortal 5y ago
  Assuming this might be the link mentioned above: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-y...
- devb 5y ago
  What town was that in? I used to live in Jersey City and every other block in my neighborhood was listed because of hexavalent chromium contamination.
  - rcurry 5y ago
    Yeah, it was JC.
slavik81 5y ago
> At the time, nobody knew radium was dangerous The Wikipedia article on radium seems to imply that some people were aware of the dangers: > During the litigation, it was determined that the company's scientists and management had taken considerable precautions to protect themselves from the effects of radiation, but it did not seem to protect their employees.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident > scraped some additional dust out of the source and took it to his house > spread some of it on the concrete floor > His six-year-old daughter later ate an egg while sitting on this floor > She was also fascinated by the blue glow of the powder, applying it to her body and showing it off to her mother. > Dust from the powder fell on the egg she was consuming > she eventually absorbed 1.0 GBq and received a total dose of 6.0 Gy, more than a fatal dose even with treatment. Glowing blue dust that kills families.
- winrid 5y ago
  Plainly Difficult on YouTube covers these kinds of stories. Tragic as they are interesting :/
- krisoft 5y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_radiological_accident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_radiological_accident In this incident 3 villagers find abandoned radioisotope thermoelectric generator cores in the forest and cozy up to them: > Around the canisters there was no snow for about a 1 m (3.3 ft) radius, and the ground was steaming. > the men decided to move the sources a short distance and make camp around them > The men used the sources to keep them warm through the night, positioning them against their backs, and as close as 10 cm (3.9 in). The next day, the sources may have been hung from the backs of Patient 1-DN and 2-MG as they loaded wood onto their truck. The stuff of nightmares really.

natmaka 5y ago

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

JKCalhoun 5y ago
Reminds me of Shoe Store Fluoroscopes. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2011/ph241/birer2/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2011/ph241/birer2/
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  Would you believe me, if I told you that I used a machine like that as a child, somewhere between 1975 to 1978 in the then capital of West-Germany? In a store of the chain Salamander. As a curiosity, because we wanted to wriggle our toes in there.
simulate-me 5y ago
There were “match girls” in England. Their jaws rotted from inhaling phosphorous in match factories. Very sad.

rcurry 5y ago

There are so many terrifying stories about stuff like this. I don’t remember the site, but there’s a website where you can research superfund allocations and it’s really frightening to learn that the parking lot two hundred meters from where you work in NJ was the site of a massive insecticide dump that used to spontaneously ignite.

MerelyMortal 5y ago
Assuming this might be the link mentioned above: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-y...
devb 5y ago
What town was that in? I used to live in Jersey City and every other block in my neighborhood was listed because of hexavalent chromium contamination.
- rcurry 5y ago
  Yeah, it was JC.

slavik81 5y ago

> At the time, nobody knew radium was dangerous The Wikipedia article on radium seems to imply that some people were aware of the dangers: > During the litigation, it was determined that the company's scientists and management had taken considerable precautions to protect themselves from the effects of radiation, but it did not seem to protect their employees.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident > scraped some additional dust out of the source and took it to his house > spread some of it on the concrete floor > His six-year-old daughter later ate an egg while sitting on this floor > She was also fascinated by the blue glow of the powder, applying it to her body and showing it off to her mother. > Dust from the powder fell on the egg she was consuming > she eventually absorbed 1.0 GBq and received a total dose of 6.0 Gy, more than a fatal dose even with treatment. Glowing blue dust that kills families.

winrid 5y ago
Plainly Difficult on YouTube covers these kinds of stories. Tragic as they are interesting :/
krisoft 5y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_radiological_accident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_radiological_accident In this incident 3 villagers find abandoned radioisotope thermoelectric generator cores in the forest and cozy up to them: > Around the canisters there was no snow for about a 1 m (3.3 ft) radius, and the ground was steaming. > the men decided to move the sources a short distance and make camp around them > The men used the sources to keep them warm through the night, positioning them against their backs, and as close as 10 cm (3.9 in). The next day, the sources may have been hung from the backs of Patient 1-DN and 2-MG as they loaded wood onto their truck. The stuff of nightmares really.