36. A Seemingly Brilliant Idea That Inflicted Serious Damage
Many of those exposed to radiation from X-Ray Shoe Fitters suffered adverse health consequences – some quite serious. Unfortunately, medical monitoring and product safety investigation back then was not what it is today. As a result, accurate figures for just how severe and widespread was the damage are lacking. However, while we do not have an idea about the actual extent of the damage, damage there undoubtedly was.
The first serious alarms were raised in 1957, when The British Medical Journal ran an article about a middle-aged woman with skin damage and pain consistent with radiation burns. She had worked in a shoe store for ten years, where she operated an X-Ray Shoe Fitter 15 to 20 times a day, often demonstrating how it worked by inserting her own foot into the device. Worse still was the fate of an unfortunate shoe model, who received so much radiation her leg had to be amputated.