Who Was Marie Curie?
10. Aplastic Anemia
The dangers of radioactivity are well known nowadays. Particles emitted from radioactive substances will pass through our bodies potentially causing damage to us on a cellular level as they pass through.
Nobody was aware of these dangers during Curie’s time, not even Curie herself. Unaware of the dangers, both Marie and Pierre regularly handled radioactive substances without protection. Marie Curies work with radioactive substances would ultimately turn out to be the cause of her death. She developed aplastic anemia; a condition that meant her body no longer produced new bloods cells. Curie died at a sanatorium in 1934, aged 66 years old.
