radium girls

radium abbreviation

Ra

lip pointing

a technique used by workers where they used their lips to make the brush tips sharp

radium health benefits

radioactivity was believed to add energy to your body

tonics, cosmetics, food

cure fatigue

radium properties

glows in the dark

radioactive yippee

Marie Curie

discovered radium and died of radiation poisoning

Mollie Maggia

one of the first to die of radium poisoning in 1922, although it was said to be syphilis or rheumatism; her doctor removed her lower jaw by hand

USRC

United States Radium Corporation; ran the plant that Grace Fryer worked at in Orange, NJ

benefits of dial-painter jobs

* allowed women to contribute in WW1
* higher paying than other factory jobs (top 5%)
* radium dust made their dresses look cool
* labeled as “artists”
* young women had small hands, which were good to paint with

Harrison Martland

a doctor that devised tests to prove that radium caused death in 1925

statute of limitations

restrictions that forced the radium girls to file their cases within 2 years of the event occurring (in this case, the radium poisoning)

Catherine Donohue (nee Wolfe)

dial-painter for Radium Dial in Ottawa, Illinois; testified against Radium Dial on her deathbed in 1938

Grace Fryer

dial-painter who raised awareness about radium poisoning by filing a case against USRC in 1927; settled out of court

Raymond Berry

lawyer who worked with Grace Fryer

Leonard Grossman

Catherine Donohue’s lawyer

radium girls legacy

first time that a company was held responsible for workers’ deaths

led to OSHA and workplace safety regulations

helped understand radiation in the human body

Radithor

a tonic of distilled water with radium dissolved in it

Why is radium dangerous?

it is chemically similar to calcium, so it is incorporated into bones whenever it is ingested and makes the bones brittle/honeycombed

radium jaw

when the jawbone becomes brittle due to radium

sarcoma

cancer that begins in bones or connective tissue; many radium girls contracted this after several years

symptoms of radium poisoning

* radium jaw
* fatigue
* toothaches
* shortened / fractured legs
* lung and bone cancer

radium poisoning cover-up

USRC commissioned an expert investigation into radium poisoning in 1924, but when the results found that radium caused death, the president of USRC paid for more studies that denied it and lied to the Department of Labor about the original study