It seemed like a good job at first. Starting in 1917, the United States Radium Corporation hired teenage girls and young women to work as painters. Using fine paintbrushes, the workers applied glow-in-the-dark paint onto watches and military instruments. The paint shone brightly because it contained radium, a substance that management assured the young workers was harmless.
In the book The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, author Kate Moore detailed how the workers were taught to wet the paintbrushes in their mouths. Within a few short years, many died from bone cancer. The corporation denied that radium caused the cancer and fought lawsuits brought by the workers. Scientists and historians now agree that radium was responsible for the workers’ illnesses.
Many people might think workplace hazards are limited to historical events when people didn’t know better. However, diseases continue to be tied to specific locations, and scientists are currently working to better understand these area-specific illnesses.
1. Military Burn Pits
At military bases in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military burned garbage in massive pits. Everything from food waste to rubber to old electronics went into the smoldering holes. Military members stationed near these bases were exposed to the fire’s emissions. An estimated 3.5 million members of the U.S. military inhaled toxins from these burn pits.
