The Radium Girls In The Early Twentieth Century
Although the tragic story of a few thousand young American women, knowingly and horrifically poisoned by their employers, sounds like a dystopian novel, it is the real story of the Radium Girls. In the early twentieth century, the Radium Girls worked in factories, painting watch dials with luminous, radium-laced paint by pointing the brush with their mouths. Unaware, these women ingested the toxic chemical that drilled holes into their very bones– the very same chemical that the companies proclaimed healthy. The companies refused to revoke their claim, even when the girls suffered terribly, having decaying jawbones that could be removed with a gentle touch, and enormous tumors. Yet despite their terminal condition, they fought for justice against
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In the very beginning, when the girls signed up for the factory job–the first of which were offered by United States Radium Corp. (USRC) in Orange, NJ, followed by others from Radium Dial in Ottawa, IL, and Waterbury Clock Company in Waterbury, CT– they did not know the dangers of radium. Rather, when they asked, their managers told them that radium was beneficial for humans. The radium industry was a profitable business in the early twentieth century; there were popular radium tonic waters that could cure a multitude of diseases from cancer to eczema and everything in between, and even products like radium infused toothpaste and chocolates. There were beauty products too, such as Radior, which claimed in a 1919 New York Times advertisement that “radium vitalizes all living tissue– rejuvenates skin, facial muscles and complexion” and sold “face creams, powders, hair tonic, skin soap, rouge, talc and facial pads.” Of course, the pro-radium research that the industry was founded upon “commonly emanated from three centers: the radium industry, the spa industry, and physicians in private practice who utilized radium. None of these may be considered completely objective sources, as all three hoped to use their findings to promote the sale of radium
In the very beginning, when the girls signed up for the factory job–the first of which were offered by United States Radium Corp. (USRC) in Orange, NJ, followed by others from Radium Dial in Ottawa, IL, and Waterbury Clock Company in Waterbury, CT– they did not know the dangers of radium. Rather, when they asked, their managers told them that radium was beneficial for humans. The radium industry was a profitable business in the early twentieth century; there were popular radium tonic waters that could cure a multitude of diseases from cancer to eczema and everything in between, and even products like radium infused toothpaste and chocolates. There were beauty products too, such as Radior, which claimed in a 1919 New York Times advertisement that “radium vitalizes all living tissue– rejuvenates skin, facial muscles and complexion” and sold “face creams, powders, hair tonic, skin soap, rouge, talc and facial pads.” Of course, the pro-radium research that the industry was founded upon “commonly emanated from three centers: the radium industry, the spa industry, and physicians in private practice who utilized radium. None of these may be considered completely objective sources, as all three hoped to use their findings to promote the sale of radium