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In the 1910s and 1920s, radium was all the rage. It was used in clock dials, floors, tiles, and even face creams and toothpastes.
Trend of time
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Radium-infused products started gaining popularity a few decades after the radioactive substance was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie.
Discovery
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At the time, the harmful effects of radium were not yet known. It was considered to be a “miracle substance” as it had been successfully used to cure cancer. It became a radioactive snake oil.
Snake-oil
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Perhaps the most notorious use of radium was seen in watch dials, which were painted orange using the luminous substance by the USRC.
US Radium Corporation (USRC)
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USRC hired young women to paint watch dials. The radium dust these women were exposed to made their skin, hair and clothes glow. They were also called “ghost girls”.
Ghost girls
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The women were not informed about the dangers of radium and some would even apply the radium-infused paint to their lips and teeth to make them glow.
Glowing teeth
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Women, especially the ones working on the extremely small watch dials, were instructed by their managers to tip the brushes to their lips to bring them to a fine point for precision.
Ingestion
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USRC’s upper management was aware of the dangers, and while men at the company were given lead aprons and ivory-tipped tongs to handle radium, the dial painters weren’t even warned.
Protection
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In 1922, Amelia Maggia, a 25-year-old dial painter, was the first to succumb to radium poisoning. Days before her death, her dentist could remove her entire lower jaw by hand.
Dial painter
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Soon, a lot of the women at the dial painting factories started facing similar symptoms, including dental pain, loose teeth, ulcers and lesions. Many of them even died.
Trouble spreads
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In 1928, a group of five dial painters, dubbed the “radium girls,” sued USRC. While it denied any wrongdoing, the case was settled out of court, as some of the women just had months to live.
Radium girls
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In 1937, workers from USRC’s Ottawa factory sued the company and won the case in 1938. However, some died before the case was finalised.
Win
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The story of the radium girls is more than just a lesson about corporate accountability and workers' rights. Their experience sparked public awareness about the dangers of radium and other radioactive substances.
Lessons
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