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We do the same thing now. My friend lives in Ohio, and there's a Beryllium plant not far from his house. No one working there lives or lasts there long.

The stuff is mined in Utah, who don't want to handle or process it more than necessary, and shipped to Ohio, where much of it is used in the space program. That is one of the reasons why when the Space Shuttle disintegrated over the US they didn't want anyone keeping any souvenirs, because of the toxicity of the stuff.

That wasn't the 1st time. Matches contain phosphorus which is quite toxic. Matches used to be made in sweat shops with large numbers of children dipping the sticks in liquid phosphorus. Many of them died.

You ain’t nothing but a number to be used up. How many people has asbestos killed???

Johns Mansville was the biggest asbestos company, but have paid little for the lives they ruined.

Back in the day they thought asbestos was harmless, too. One of my great uncles, my maternal grandmothers younger brother, spent his whole working as a pipe fitter in a couple different power plants. Back when they all the lines were covered in asbestos. He made it to age 65 and retired but died from asbestosis less than two years later. Lots of plumbers, pipefitters, etc. who worked around that stuff never even made it to retirement.

When we lived in SW Michigan, a large cache of old radium dial aircraft instruments was found in an old building. Momma, did that start a storm.

When I was young, one of the favored science fair projects was to make a spinthariscope. Basically, you found an old radium dial watch, scraped off the numbers, and mixed that with a phosphor. That mixture went in a closed box with a magnifier on top, so viewers could see little flashes of light as radioactive decay products struck the phosphor.

There a lot pieces of technology which will kill you before your time.

Back when I was programming for a machine shop the boss was bidding a job with Beryllium Copper material. He asked me how it machined so I started researching it. When I told him how toxic it was he no bid the part. A few years later his arrogant and very greedy son took over. He bid several parts of the same material and warned me to keep my mouth shut. They never bothered to tell the guys on the floor about the toxic nature of the stuff so I told each of them about it. They all shrugged and said they needed a job.

Like fast cars. Those kill a LOT more people than do watch dials.
So do illegal drugs. If they were really worried about people's health, most of the drug traffic could be stopped.

story of this man is horrifying . but at least it was finally admitted and his family a closure.



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

Lots of Carpenters too.

Steve McQueen worked in an asbestos mill before he got into acting. It killed him at a young age.

And then there was obama care....

And all the Vietnam Vets who died from Agent Orange exposure 😡

Now days it's texting while driving. All gotta go sometime.

Just as our founders considered government a necessary evil, so goes radioactive materials.

That’s different. Darwinism at work. 😜

Johns Manville had one CEO die of Mesotheloma and the founder died of what was thought to be Asbestosis.

So one would think they just didn't know until it was too late. They went belly up, established a trust to settle claims, so far $5 billion.

In a lot of ways, we're all guinea pigs, as the long term effect of most things are discovered only over time.

Lots of examples, tobacco for instance. It took forever for causation to be proven, long after association was known to exist.

Agent Orange mentioned earlier, for sure. Association with bladder cancer is known. Not sure the govt would admit if direct causation was ever proven.

Round Up is another one. Association with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Not sure where that one is headed...

DF

The Obama administration--

The elementary school I attended was built for the kids of the people who moved into the area to work at the gaseous diffusion plant. As the crow flies, it was about 2 miles away.