Would this happen in 2017?

While waiting at the dentist reading a magazine I came across a book review for "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore. A fascinating story about female factory workers from 1917 to around 1926 at U.S. Radium who painted watch-faces and instruments. To get a fine point would see the women licking their paint brushes, and ingesting radium when doing so.

Having been told the radium was harmless some also painted their fingernails, face and teeth with the glowing substance. Chemists at the plant were much more cautious and used protection, including lead screens and gloves, when handling the radium.

Many of those women became sick and died from exposure to radiation. Watch-dial companies rejected claims that afflicted workers were suffering from exposure to radium; asking doctors, dentists, and reasearchers not to release their data. They would also seek to have worker deaths be attributed to other causes, in some cases to syphilis which would be cited as an attempt to smear the reputation of these women.

Five of the women sued U.S. Radium with the case being settled in autumn of 1928 before the trial was deliberated by the jury. The litigation and media sensation surrounding the case helped establish occupation disease labor law in the United States.

With the increasing movement of manufacturing from 'first world' to developing countries, and the quest for 'improved price-point', can we be assured that a repeat of similar misinformation and worker exploitation would not be possible today?