"Radium is good for you!" Topic

link

While I was well aware of the this I don't know how many other people are.

Thanks for posting it.

I had never heard about this. Thanks for posting.

Me neither. Very interesting. Somewhat depressing, too. It would be bad enough if people had encouraged the use of radium in (now obviously) idiotic ways through sheer ignorance, but the fact is they KNEW it was dangerous and did it anyway. It's also depressing that that's not at all surprising.

Doug

I had heard a little about this but didn't know the whole story.
Thanks for the link.

While sad in real life (and a testimony to the greed and selfishness of some people), this does fit in quite well with the Fallout universe…

Rob

I developed my first skin cancer lesion on my neck when I was 32. It was a basal cell carcinoma which don't kill you but like any cancer left un dealt with it will grow. Many started to show up and when in to have one removed I happened to mention my mother sent me to a doctor who treated acne with x-rays. I was 15 and the cost bothered me so I quit going. The doctor cutting still another lesion off my face asks if the guy's name was Murphy. I said that was the man and he said Murphy had sent him a lot of business over the years. Like me it showed up 15 to 20 years later. Murphy did this until he retired. I would lie down on the table, nurse would put the lead apron over my vitals and leave the room. Then "buzz" and like a breath of air passed over my face. This was 1963 and no one can ever convince me the man did not know radiating people had consequences. I have around a 10% chance skin cancer will kill me. Lest anyone think the "benign" lesions are truly benign, if one comes back a third time it is bad news. I was in getting the back of one ear removed and a patient came in from out of town with a small red lesion on his nose. The doctor he was seeing just kept removing what surfaced. Thing is the red dot was the tip of the iceberg. While I was there getting layer after layer of skin taken off the back of my ear until they find no more cancer cells this man had his nose and half his face removed.

In the 50s when I was a lad shoe stores had x-ray machines where the kiddies could go put their feet in and look at the bones. My doctor said 20 to 25 years later patients showed up with lesions on their feet. Took the profession awhile to figure it out but it was the shoe store "novelty".

Same for the good doctor Murphy. A rash of patients with lesions on the face which never cease appearing had local dermatologists puzzled until they found out the majority had been treated by Murphy for acne. Unfortunately he was quite dead but his legacy lives on. I am 69 and I have no idea how many lesions have surfaced and been removed. My face is pretty much scar tissue. Dozens of small white scars. Reading the awful story of those poor women causes the inner rage that is my life force against the scum that do this for money to rise but there is nowhere good to go with it. Rage over. I will now go quietly into that good night where sleep heals so much.

Wow….