In 1987 Cinemax aired a documentary called Radium City based on the Radium Dial plant in Ottawa, Illinois that interviewed family members of victims and even a victim. I vividly remember this documentary so that when this book was published recently I was anxious to read it and learn more.
The Radium Luminous Materials Corporations would begin sometime after 1913 with the advent of the radium paint by Sabin von Sochocky for use on dials for watches and later when the World War I started up to paint instrument dials. The plant existed first in Newark than in Orange, New Jersey. The women were told it was harmless. They were told to lip the paintbrush in their mouth to get it wet, then dip it in the paint, then brush it on the dial, then repeat. This would mean that they would be ingesting radium.
Now at that time, the company was selling radium tonics and radium was a known treatment for cancer so it was seen as a wonder drug. But at the same time, those that worked with it in the company were missing pieces of their fingers and had burns. The women began to have problems with their teeth and jaws and their arms and legs. But they weren't necessarily all working at the plant anymore or going to the same dentist so the pieces falling together that something was wrong would take a while. On September 12, 1922, Mollie Maggia would die due to radium poisoning, but no one would know it. She was only twenty-four-years-old.
Some of the women would begin to see the same dentists who believed that they had "phossy jaw", or phosphorous in their jaw which was causing the decay of their mouth. The Radium Luminous Materials Corporations knew this to be false, but they also knew what was causing the women's troubles. The women got together and decided to sue for damages once they had radium poisoning made an occupational hazard.
While they were making progress on their cases, the women in Ottawa, Illinois who were working for a different company were being told that radium was healthy and that the paint the women in New Jersey used was Mesothorium, a different type of paint. It was still a type of radium isotope, but radium nonetheless. For a short while, they used glass stylus to paint the dials on Westclox clocks and watches but the brushes were quicker. The women weren't able to sue like they were able to in New Jersey, but they were able to go before the Illinois Insurance Commision to get money that way. The problem was that with the radiation of the women from their checkups had cost the Radium Dial Company it's insurance, but was forced to leave $10,000 in an exchange with the IIC. The company itself had left and gone to New York being run by its manager, while its owner had opened a new and separate company down the road where they told the women it was safe.
These women would paint the radium paint on their faces and their teeth for when they would go out on a date. People could see them at night while they walked about town even without the paint because they glowed in the dark and they called them "ghost girls". They lost their jaws, they lost arms, legs to a disease they didn't understand and were lied to about. It affected their ability to reproduce and affected their children. But their sacrifice wasn't in vain. Due to them, we have OSHA and the international Limited Test Ban Treaty on 1963. These women's bodies were examined by scientists throughout their life and after their death in order to better understand radium contamination. This book is an incredible book that really examines the lives of these unsung women who should have been warned of the dangers of their working conditions and who fought to have compensation for medical costs paid out to them if they are lucky. This was an American Tragedy. I really loved this book and the lives it introduced me to. I give it five out of five stars.
Link to part of Radium City documentary:https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6itzf2
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6itzel
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6itzer
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6iwlzr
Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Radium-Girls-Story-Americas-Shining-ebook/dp/B01N7KMS7X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542197450&sr=8-1&keywords=radium+girls
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