The Power of Radium at your DisposalA few days before Christmas of 1898, Pierre Curie scrawled the word 'radium' in his notebook as the name for a new element he and his wife Madame Marie Curie (who was the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes). They had brought it diligently to light in their ramshackle laboratory in Paris. Radium is a brilliant white, luminescent, rare and highly radioactive metallic element. The name comes from the Latin word radius, meaning 'ray'. The notebook in which the name first appears is still highly radioactive and dangerous. Radium releases radiant energy with every nuclear decay. This means that as time passes, the nucleus of the atom breaks down and releases energy that does bad stuff. Radiation causes ionization of atoms, which results in unwanted chemical reaction in cells. At its worst, it can damage DNA, prompting an increased risk of cancer, genetic mutations and even death. The first use of radium was used for medical purposes. Immediately, the therapeutic properties of radium rays against cancer were recognized. The use of radium in medicine became so common that every kind of disease was treated by radium therapy; not only breast cancer, but also diabetes, sciatica, rheumatism, acne and even impotence! As a consequence of this

tremendous success, the radium industry grew rapidly during the 1920s and numerous goods, especially cosmetics, doped with radium, were on sale. It was even considered that in order to be in good health, one should drink a glass of radioactive water every day, prepared by using a radium percolator. This period lasted for more than 25 years. Then, just before World War II, radium use was considered dangerous and the number of its applications decreased.

1920's Newspaper ad for Radium.

Radium: A Miracle Cure!

Doctors administer radium treatments

that claimed the devide would "make

old men feel young again and young

men feel younger."

Radioactive water & Radithor.

Invented in 1925, distilled water

enriched with radium salts.

Advertised as "perpetual sunshine".

Claimed it could cure over 150

diseases.

Other uses: Radium-laced facial powders, radium-infused candy, soap, condoms, facial creams, toys and nightlights, toothpaste, heating pads and suppositories, treatment of impotence, health spas, butter, milk.

Radium GirlsDuring World War I, hundreds of young women went to work in clock factories, painting watch dials with luminous radium paint. But after the girls - who literally glowed in the dark after their shifts - began to experience gruesome side effects, they began a race-against-time fight for justice that would forever change US labor laws.Hundreds of working-class women flocked to the studio where they were employed to paint watches and military dials with the new element radium, which had been discovered less than 20 years before. Dial painting was the elite job for the poor working girls. It paid more than three times the average factory job, and those lucky enough to land a position ranked in the top 5% of female workers nationally, giving the women financial freedom in a tie of burgeoning female empowerment. Many of them were teenagers, with small hands perfect for the artistic work, and they spread the message of their new job's appeal through their friend and family networks. Often, whole sets of siblings worked alongside each other in the studio.

Radium luminosity was part of its allure, and the dial painters soon became known as the "ghost girls" because by the time they finished their shifts, they themselves would glow in the dark! They made the most of the perk, wearing their good dresses to the plant so they'd shine at the dance halls at night. Even painting radium onto their teeth for a smile that would knock their suitors dead!The radium girls were taught to follow the technique they'd been taught for the painstaking handiwork of painting the tiny dials, some of which were only 3.5 cm wide. The girls were instructed to slip their paintbrushes between their lips to make a fine point - a practice called lip-pointing, of a "lip, dip, paint routine." Every time the girls raised the brushes to their mouths, they swallowed a little of the glowing green paint.

Did you ever hear stories about the radium girls?Do you remember any products that contained radium?

Ever since the glowing element had been discovered, it had been known to cause harm. Marie Curie herself had suffered radiation burns from handling it. People had died of radium poisoning before the first dial painter ever picked up her brush. That is why the men wore lead aprons in their laboratories and handled the radium with ivory-tipped tongs. Yet the dial painters were not afforded such protection, or even warned it might be necessary. It was believed that the small amount that the girls were handling - was believed to be beneficial to health. But that belief was founded upon research conducted by the very same radium firms who had built their lucrative industry around it. They ignored all the danger signs. When asked, managers told the girls the substances would put roses in their cheeks.

Truth and Lies

The First Death In the early 1920s, some of the Radium Girls started developing symptoms like fatigue and toothaches. The first death occurred in 1922, when 22-year old Mollie Maggia died after reportedly enduring a year of pain. She didn't know what was wrong with her. The trouble started with an aching tooth. Her dentist pulled it, but then the next tooth started hurting and also had to be extracted. In the place of missing teeth, agonizing ulcers developed as dark flowers, blooming red and yellow with blood and pus. She suffered aching pains in her limbs that were debilitating. It left her unable to walk. The doctor thought it was rheumatism. He sent her home with aspirin. By May, she had lost most of her teeth and the mysterious infection had spread to her entire lower jaw, the roof of her mouth and even some of the bones in her ears. When the dentist probed her jawbone, to his horror, her jawbone fell apart in pieces and he had to remove it.

Molly Maggia died on 12 September 1922 when the strange infection had spread to the tissue of her throat. The disease had slowly eaten through her jugular vein and she hemorrhaged so fast that the nurse could not staunch it. She died at the age of 24. The doctors listed her cause of death as syphilis,

Radium Girls.Molly Maggia is third from the right.

Why were the men protected from the radium, but the young girls were lied to about the dangers and told that it would help with their beauty?Do you think the company took responsibility when the girls started to die?

One-By-One

The Cover up!The Radium Girls employer, United States Radium Corporation (USRS) denied any responsibility for the deaths for almost two years! It wasn't until they had suffered from the "gossip" that wouldn't go away, in 1924, they commissioned an expert to look into the rumored link between the dial-painting profession and the women's deaths. The research was done by an independent company and the expert confirmed the link between the radium and the women's illnesses. Of course the company was outraged and did not believe the results. They hired another company for new studies that published the opposite conclusion. The president of the company also lied to the Department of Labor which had begun their own investigation. The president publicly denounced the women as trying to "palm off" their illnesses on the firm and decried their attempt to get some financial help for their mounting medical bills.

The Radium Girls most difficult challenge was proving the link between their mysterious illnesses and the radium that they'd been ingesting hundreds of times a day. During that time, they were fighting against the widespread belief that radium was safe as it was used in so many other products. It was not until the first male employee of the radium firm died that experts finally took up the charge. Even though dozens of women had died, it was not until 1925 when a doctor devised tests that proved once and for all that radium had poisoned the women.Some of the other girls suffered the same gruesome fate as Mollie, and some met their fate with other symptoms. One girl suffered a collapse of her vertebrae, her spine disintegrated from the radium. Some of the other girls developed skin cancer, cataracts, throat cancer, loose teeth, and hair loss.

Why do you think it took the death of a man for people to believe it was the radium that was causing the deaths?

The Biggest Challenge!

The Fight for their Lives!In 1925, Grace Fryer, one of the workers from the original New Jersey plant, decided to sue, but she would spend two years searching for a lawyer willing to help her. She finally filed her case in 1927 along with four fellow workers. However, time was running out. The women had been given just four months to live, and the company seemed intent on dragging out the legal proceedings. As a consequence, Grace and her friends were forced to settle out of court - but they had raised the profile of radium poisoning. The New Jersey Radium Girls made front page news, which alerted other dial-painters across the United States. A Illinois firm, Radium Dial instantly denied repsonsibility when the women at their plant started showing symptoms. They immediately tried to hush up the scandal and even went as far as interfering in the girls' autopsies when the Illinois workers began to die. Company officials actually stole their radium-riddled bones in the callous cover-up!

Making HistoryIn 1938, another Radium Girl named Catherine Wolfe developed a grapefruit-sized tumor that bulged from her hip. She lost her teeth and had to pick pieces of her jawbone out of her mouth. She constantly held a patterned handkerchief to her jaw. This began her fight for justice. With her pro-bono lawyer and lying in bed close to death, her case went to court. Catherine ignored her doctors' advice and gave evidence from her deathbed. With the help of her lawyer, she finally won justice not only for herself, but for workers everywhere!

Death on the JobThe case of the Radium Girls was the first court case in which a company was made responsible for the declining health of its employees. The proceedings and the events that followed were responsible for the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which protects workers across the United States. By this time, the dangers of radium were in full view. The lip-pointing techniques was discontinued and the women were given protective gear. More women sued, and the radium companies appealed several times, but in 1939, the Supreme Court rejected the last appeal. The survivors received compensation, and death certificates would start reporting the correct cause of death. The Food and Drug Administration banned the deceptive packaging of radium-based products and the radium paint itself was eventually phased out and has not been used in watches since 1968. It's hard to know the actual number of women who suffered health problems due to the ingestion of radium, but the numbers were in the thousands. Some of the effects would only be felt much later in life through various forms of cancer. With a half-life of 1,600 years, once the radium was inside their body, it was there for good. The legacy of the Radium Girls lived on through the ripples that their deaths created in labor laws and the scientific understanding of the effects of radioactivity. Almost everything scientists know about radiation inside of the human body, is owed to the Radium Girls.

Additional Information:Youtube:

After the Glow: Radium Girls Draft 2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAqDDjwajDQ

After the Glow: Radium Girls Draft 3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlgC4hQ8i5E

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining WomenBy Kate Moore

Radium Girls movie coming soon!https://reelgood.com/movie/radium-girls-2018

1. Why do you think it took so long to prove that radium was causing the deaths of the women?2. So many products had radium in it, do you think that caused additional deaths?3. What most outraged you about the treatment the women received?4. What do you think about the response the United States Radium Corporations had given to the women who filed the complaints?5. To what extent do today's laws offer workers protection against hazardous material and other dangers in the workplace? (ie OSHA) How far have we come?6. What relevance does this story have in the 21st century?7. Why do you think the companies fought so hard against the responsibility of the women's illnesses?

Engaging Questions

Curious Dragonfly LLCwww.curiousdragonfly.comTrina Terrell303.903.5319