Key Takeaways
The first illnesses seem around 1920 , and initially , doctor were baffled . Otherwise sizeable young adult female were of a sudden sick with a number of ailments , includinganemiaandcancer . But the most touch symptom these working - class charwoman had wasnecrosis of the jaw : Their faces were literally rotting away .
So what did these vernal woman have in common other than their symptoms ? They were all factory workers . Every one of them worked in radium telephone dial manufactory in New Jersey , Illinois and Connecticut .
Thewomen who were return illwere radium dial cougar . They painted watch dial , clocks and instrument for ship and aircraft with glow - in - the - dark paint . Eventually , they would watch that it was atomic number 88 poisoning from the blusher that was tardily down them . Later , as lawsuits against their employer mount , the press knight the woman theRadium Girls .
The Discovery of Radium
" When Marie Curie and Pierre Curie discovered atomic number 88 in 1898 , it was only the third radioactive element discovered , " James Stemm , curator of the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History , says via email . While Ra had no practical practical software at first , it was shortly discovered that the radiation utter byradium could kill living cells , and Doctor of the Church start using it to treat cancers .
" A new treatment for cancer obviously create a wiz , " Stemm says . " Many people concluded that if actinotherapy could ' bring around ' cancer then it must be sound for you in general . Both lawful aesculapian practician and humbug grabbed the musical theme and run away with it . "
Radium became , Stemm say , a major fad . It was promoted as a cure for " just about any disease or condition imaginable . " Companies sold equipment that infuse Ra ’s radiation syndrome into drinking water .
" Radium also appeared in other consumer products such as cleanup production , disinfectants and cosmetic , " Stemm adds . " Companies added the Bible radium to their products simply as a marketing tool even when there was no radium used . "
Painting for the United States Radium Corporation
Another manufacture also start using atomic number 88 , but not for its " curative " abilities . On its own , the elementradium glows pallidly in the nighttime . When mixed with a substance like atomic number 30 , it takes on a shining , immature vividness that reach a glowing key .
Industrial manufacturing business realise the paint — know as Ra paint — could be used to make instruments and clocks visible at night . Demand grew as World War I set out ; in 1914 , the United States Radium Corporation , or USRC , was founded .
USRC hired young women to paint these legal document with radium key . Their small hands were suit to the detailed work , and the job pay off well .
" At the height of the industry in the former 1920s , about 2,000 women were employ , " say Stemm . " idea of the entire number of women employ in the industry between 1917 and 1935 vary , but a number approaching 10,000 is not unreasonable . "
The women would mix their own paint from atomic number 88 dust and other factor . They were soon known as " ghostwriter missy , " because the radium junk made their hide , hair and wearing apparel radiate . Some of the fair sex even used Ra rouge on their teeth to brighten their grinning .
" Once the key was assorted , the extremely ok detail painting required very precipitously pointed rouge brushes , " says Stemm . " To ensure a sufficiently knifelike point , the women were told to employ their lips and glossa to shape the brushing . " They had to do this repeatedly throughout the day to keep that okay percentage point , which meant the charwoman ingested radioactive paint constantly .
The charwoman ’s employers at Radium Corporation assured them the paint was harmless , but many of the women presently fell ill , some sternly with gangrene of the jaw .
" This extremely sore and disfiguring term was the most usual of the diseases suffered by the [ radium missy ] , " Stemm says . " Radium toxic condition caused the dupe ' jaws to decompose over time , eventually killing them . "
By the prison term the first dial puma break down in 1923 , the aesculapian community had begin to surmise that radium exposure was the movement .
Taking the Companies to Court
By the late twenties , many of female telephone dial panther had fall dangerously ill ; several had die .
Although Radium Corp. secure the dial painter they were safe , Stemm says , the fellowship knew that working with radium was grave . " A theme commissioned by USRC in the early 1920s concluded that the total lack of safety guard was putting the dial painter in danger , " he sound out .
Radium Corp. submit a falsified versionof the news report to New Jersey officials and conquer its findings , continuing to rebut the idea that its radium dial paint was making anyone sick .
" When one of USRC ’s aged apothecary die of aplastic anemia in 1925 , it became obvious that there was a connection , " Stemm says . " Studies by officials in New Jersey proved that the women were brook from radiation poisoning , and that it had get along from the radium they were exposed to in their workplace . "
By the late 1920s , five women sued USRC in Orange , New Jersey , starting with Grace Fryer . It hold Fryer two geezerhood to witness an attorney to take the case , but once she did , four other women — Edna Hussman , Katherine Schaub , and sisters Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice — bring together . Newspaper headlines knight them the Living Dead and the Radium Girls .
Their attorney , Raymond Berry , hired 30 - year - former physicist Elizabeth Hughes who used an electroscope tomeasure radioactivityin the breath of the five dial painter . Hughes testified thatall five women had ingest so much Ra that their breath was toxic .
The Radium Girls' Legacy
Hughes ' testimony gained worldwide attention . To avoid the sorry publicity , Radium Corp. agreed to an out of court settlement .
" [ It was ] one of the first illustration in the United States in which employer were held liable for the wellness and safety of their employees " Stemm says . The bequest of the atomic number 88 girls , he say , is " the introduction of workplace safety regulation and of government oversight organizations like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration . "
By 1927 , more than 50 women had fail because of atomic number 88 paint poisoning . But the Radium Girls ' story does n’t end there . Their write up make unnecessary lives , too . Their diseases and suffering made the public aware of the dangers of radium .
" By 1935 , the usage of Ra in most consumer products had ended and government regulating banned its use , " says Stemm . Radium was still used in aircraft cat’s-paw — with a great deal more safety precautions in place — until the 1970s , but today it ’s been supervene upon by technology that ’s a lot less deathly .
