Depends on what you mean “before they knew what radio activity was”. They did horrible things with it before they knew about the health effects.
Like putting Radium in pills you swallow:
Or even in suppositories which are even worse:
They put thorium in toothpaste:
They used massive powered X-Ray machines with no protection in shoe store so you could see how your feet fit in shoes:
They put radium in paint then put it on pocket watch faces so they glow, but the workers didn’t know the effects of radium and all died of massive cancer of the mouth, jaw, and throat. I’m not putting picture here for that. Google those at your own risk.
For a brief few years Kent cigarettes has asbestos filters.
From March 1952 until at least May 1956, however, the Micronite filter in Kent cigarettes contained compressed blue asbestos within the crimped crepe paper, which is the most carcinogenic type of asbestos.
One of the early pros working with radioactivity was Marie Curie. She died of aplastic anemia in 1934. Her research notes are still radioactive. Her lab was said to be radioactive as well, yet it was not decontaminated until 1991.
Depends on what you mean “before they knew what radio activity was”. They did horrible things with it before they knew about the health effects.
Like putting Radium in pills you swallow:
Or even in suppositories which are even worse:
They put thorium in toothpaste:
They used massive powered X-Ray machines with no protection in shoe store so you could see how your feet fit in shoes:
They put radium in paint then put it on pocket watch faces so they glow, but the workers didn’t know the effects of radium and all died of massive cancer of the mouth, jaw, and throat. I’m not putting picture here for that. Google those at your own risk.
The radium paint one is particularly bad because they told the workers (mostly women) to give their brush a fine tip using their mouth.
And they were fucked up for life due to it
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls
And the company know pretty well the dangers, the men who worked with the material used protection against the radiation.
Don’t forget Marie Curie died from it and her documents are so irridated they have to be quarantined.
https://www.businessinsider.com/marie-curie-radioactive-papers-2015-8
For a brief few years Kent cigarettes has asbestos filters.
One of the early pros working with radioactivity was Marie Curie. She died of aplastic anemia in 1934. Her research notes are still radioactive. Her lab was said to be radioactive as well, yet it was not decontaminated until 1991.
https://www.openculture.com/2023/11/marie-curies-research-papers-are-still-radioactive-a-century-later.html