Uncovering a Cancer Crime Story with Kate Moore, Author of The Radium Girls (Re-release)

Why Did I Get Cancer? with Deborah Herlax Enos · Apr 18, 2025 · 59m

My friend Kim loves crime stories from Crime Junkie to Dateline.

Me? Not so much.

But I enjoy a good, not-too-gory crime story where the bad guy gets it in the end.

Since I'm part of a vast cancer community, I hear stories that encourage me and some that make me so upset that I can't sleep.

This is one of those stories.

In 1898, Pierre and Madam Curie discovered radium.

In 1903, Pierre Curie said, "He would not care to be alone with radium in a room as it would burn all the skin off his body, destroy his eyesight, and probably kill him."

In the 1920s, young women (average age 14) were hired…