People back then (and even today) were taught to not talk about their problems or about things that were bothering them. People and children were taught to never complain. People were taught to respect their bosses, and not talk back or argue with them, even if they disagreed with them. 


Everyone kept quiet and did not talk about what they knew, even if what they knew meant lives could be saved.  This air of secrecy kept the problems associated with radium facilities in the dark and out of sight, despite the fact that many people in town, starting with radium workers, were getting sick and dying.

None of these workers were advised to wear gloves or to use any type of protective equipment. None of them were told about the dangers of radiation. Many of them died or had severe health problems as a result of working in these plants. 

Wikipedia also goes into the precautions one should take around Radium. It says that; “Radium is highly radioactive and its decay product, radon gas, is also radioactive. Since radium is chemically similar to calcium, it has the potential to cause great harm by replacing calcium in bones. Exposure to radium can cause cancer and other disorders, because radium and its decay product radon emit alpha particles upon their decay, which kill and mutate cells. The dangers of radium were apparent from the start. The first case of so-called “radium-dermatitis” was reported in 1900, only 2 years after the element’s discovery. The French physicist Antoine Becquerel carried a small ampoule of radium around in his waistcoat pocket for 6 hours and reported that his skin became ulcerated. Marie Curie also had a similar incident in which she experimented with a tiny sample that she kept in contact with her skin for 10 hours and noted how an ulcer appeared, although not for several days. Handling of radium has also been blamed for Madam Curie’s death due to aplastic anemia. Stored radium should be ventilated to prevent accumulation of radon. Emitted energy from the decay of radium also ionizes gases, affects photographic plates, and produces many other detrimental effects – to the extent that at the time of the Manhattan Project in 1944, the “tolerance dose” for workers was set at 0.1 microgram of ingested radium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium

Historic name	Symbol, present name
Radium emanation	222Rn, radon-222
Radium A	218Po, polonium-218
Radium C	214Bi, bismuth-214
Radium C1	214Po, polonium-214
Radium C2	210Tl, thallium-210
Radium D	210Pb, lead-210
Radium E	210Bi, bismuth-210
Radium F	210Po, polonium-210

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