3 ms·
My mom pipetted by mouth in grad school in the 50s, doing radiochemistry.
by analog31 3y ago
My mom pipetted by mouth in grad school in the 50s, doing radiochemistry.
- bell-cot 3y agoA bit further back - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_dial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_dial > Radium dials were typically painted by young women, who used to 'point' their brushes by licking and shaping the bristles prior to painting the fine lines and numbers on the dials. This practice resulted in the ingestion of radium, which caused serious jaw-bone degeneration and malignancy and other dental diseases. The disease, radium-induced osteonecrosis, was recognized as an occupational disease in 1925 after a group of radium painters, known as the Radium Girls, from the United States Radium Corporation sued. By 1930, all dial painters stopped pointing their brushes by mouth. Stopping this practice drastically reduced the amount of radium ingested and therefore, the incidence of malignancy.