![]() They became known as the “Radium Girls,” and the media sensationalized it as the “Case of the Five Women Doomed to Die.” By 1927, however, she had representation and four other women suffering similar symptoms had joined the lawsuit. It took Grace two years to find a lawyer willing to take on U.S. Grace saw another doctor in 1925, who realized the symptoms may be related to the radioactive paint. ![]() Her doctor discovered she was suffering from severe bone decay in her mouth, but couldn’t identify a cause. from the Chicago Daily Times, July 7th, 1937 The Radium Girls: Five Women Doomed to Dieĭial painter Grace Fryer began losing her teeth, her eyes became clouded, and she had pain in her jaw. In an effort to smear the women’s reputations, doctors often attributed their symptoms to syphilis, a sexually transmitted bacterial infection known for causing osseous lesions in the skull similar to the damage caused by radium. ![]() ![]() At the urging of the companies, worker deaths were attributed by medical professionals to other causes. For some time, doctors, dentists, and researchers complied with requests from the companies not to release their data. Radium and other watch-dial companies rejected claims that the afflicted workers were suffering from exposure to radium. It turned out at least one of the examinations was a ruse, part of a campaign of disinformation started by the defense contractor. It is thought that the x-ray machines used by the medical investigators may have contributed to some of the sickened workers’ ill-health by subjecting them to additional radiation. They soon began to develop mysterious illnesses, anemia, bone fractures, and necrosis of the mandible, a condition now known as radium jaw. The brushes would lose their points after a few strokes, so supervisors would encourage their workers to use their lips or tongues to reshape the brush tips into a fine point.įor fun, the women often painted their nails, teeth and faces with the deadly paint, unaware of what it was doing to them. The going rate was about a penny and a half per dial, and they could usually do about 250 in a day. They mixed glue, water and radium powder, and then used camel hair brushes to apply the glowing paint onto dial numbers. and Canada to paint watch faces with radium. The company had even distributed literature to the medical community describing the “injurious effects” of radium.Īn estimated 4,000 workers were hired by corporations in the U.S. Chemists at the plant used lead screens, masks and tongs. Owners of the company and the scientists in their employ told the women that the radium was safe to work with, while they themselves were well aware of its harmful effects and took extensive precautions to avoid any exposure to it. Their plant in New Jersey employed over a hundred workers, mainly women, to paint radium-lit watch faces and instruments. Radium was a major supplier of radioluminescent watches to the military. Radium Corporation, originally called the Radium Luminous Material Corporation, was engaged in the extraction and purification of radium from carnotite ore to produce luminous paints, which were marketed under the brand name “Undark.” As a defense contractor, U.S. The women, who had been told the paint was harmless, ingested deadly amounts of radium by licking their paintbrushes to sharpen them.įive of the women challenged their employer in a court case that established the right of individual workers who contract occupational diseases to sue their employers.įrom 1917 to 1926, U.S. The Radium Girls were a group of female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint at the United States Radium factory in Orange, New Jersey around 1917. ![]() Women at work in a US Radium Corporation factory ![]()
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