The story of the Radium Girls begins with the discovery of radium itself.
Isolated in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie, radium was hailed as a miracle element – brilliantly luminous in the dark, astonishing in its apparent vitality, and thought to have powerful health benefits. Early in the twentieth century, radium found its way into medical therapies, cosmetics, tonics and even toothpaste. The dangers were not yet fully understood, though evidence was mounting that exposure carried deadly risks. What seemed at first like a shining symbol of progress would, within a generation, become a toxic emblem of worker exploitation.
From 1917 to 1926, the United States Radium Corporation (USRC) was engaged in the extraction and purification of radium from carnotite ore to produce luminous paints, which were marketed under the obvious-but-interesting brand name "Undark". The most notorious use of this extracted radium was in the production of luminous watch dials and instrument panels, marketed to consumers and soldiers alike. In the United States during the 1910s and 1920s, factories in New Jersey, Illinois and Connecticut employed hundreds of young women to paint these glowing numbers. The work was considered both modern and glamorous. The women, later known as the Radium Girls, were trained in the “lip, dip, paint” technique: they shaped their camel-hair brushes into fine points with their lips, dipped the brushes into the radium-based paint, and then applied the glowing substance with precision. Supervisors repeatedly assured them the material was harmless. Some women even painted their nails, teeth, or dresses for fun – enjoying the novelty of shining in the dark. [Ed: Who doesn’t like things that glow in the dark, right?]
But inside their bodies, the radium was wreaking havoc. When ingested it lodges in bones, irradiating tissue from within. The first symptoms were insidious: toothaches, jaw pain, fatigue. Soon, young women developed necrosis of the jaw – literally a rotting of the bone that became known as “radium jaw”. Others suffered anaemia, brittle bones, sarcomas and fatal organ damage. By the mid-1920s, dozens had died in horrifying ways, and many more were gravely ill.
The legal and public reckoning was fierce. At first, the companies denied responsibility, blaming the victims’ health on poor dental hygiene or syphilis, attempting to discredit the women. But the mounting evidence – and the courageous determination of the afflicted workers – made denial ultimately impossible.
In 1927, five women in New Jersey, supported by lawyer Raymond Berry and journalist Walter Lippmann, brought their case against the USRC. The media coverage was sensational, and the public was horrified by the image of glowing, skeletal young women betrayed by corporate greed. Though the women’s lives were already slipping away, their lawsuit broke new ground. It established crucial precedents in occupational health, employer liability and workers’ rights. Later, similar cases in Illinois reinforced these principles, leading to stronger labour protections and eventually the establishment of federal safety standards for radiation and toxic substances.
The legacy of the Radium Girls has been echoed in the culture. Their ordeal inspired books, plays, documentaries and films – most recently the 2016 Kate Moore book The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, and the 2018 fictionalised drama Radium Girls.
The Radium Girls story is now taught as a pivotal moment in the history of industrial safety – a dark chapter that forced society to recognise the human cost of unchecked innovation.
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls
undark.org/2017/07/20/radium-girls-book-review
afacwa.org/the_forgotten_story_of_the_radium_girls_whose_deaths_saved_thousands_of_workers_lives
Images
1. Radium Girls work in a factory of the United States Radium Corporation.
2. Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898
3. 1921 magazine advertisement for Undark
4. Advertisement for Ramey’s Crème Radiacée
5. Advertisement for Radior’s full range of beauty products for women
6. Watchface with radium painted dial numbers
7. Radium girl painting a dial
8.
Radium-infused antiques. Visual: Environmental Protection Agency (US)
9. Radium girl Grace Fryer with a radium-induced sarcoma of the chin
10. Chicago Daily Times headline
11. Book: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women – 6 March 2018
12. Video: "Radium Girls Official Trailer", Juno Films, 2018
