The Radium Girls is a brilliant, shocking, humanistic, and enraging story about young women who were unknowingly poisoned with radium at their jobs as watch dial painters during and after WW1. The companies knew that radium was a dangerous substance, but never disclosed that information to the painters. When the girls began complaining about strange pains, growths, and bone problems, they were either fired from their jobs, or were told that the symptoms were syphilis, hysteria, or some "female" complaint. What follows is an exhausting story about a massive and long-lasting cover-up scheme undertaken by the radium companies, and how the girls fought against it. The end result brought about the creation of a new governmental department, focused solely on protecting workers health and safety.
The companies - United States Radium Corporation in Orange, NJ and the Radiant Dial Company and Luminous Process Corporation in Ottawa, IL - enjoyed lucrative contracts with the US government, providing glow-in-the-dark watches and other products for use during wartime. The substance that they used to create this glow was the newly-discovered radium. When mixed with other substances, it created a radium paint that could be applied using thin brushes. The companies needed workers to do the painting, and advertised in local newspapers - specifically requesting young women - and offered the opportunity for large wages. They paid by the piece, and the girls' earnings were limited only by how many watches they could paint during their shift. Most of those who applied were working-class girls, in their mid/late teens and early twenties, who were delighted to have the money; some even out-earned their fathers.
Each was provided a limited quantity of radium paint for their shift, but some radium particles hung in the air around the workroom. No protective clothing or shields were provided to the workers, because they were told that there was no risk in working with the radium. In fact, many girls ate their lunch at the workstations, ingesting radium on their food, along with bringing it home in their hair, clothes, and shoes. At night, even after vigorous washing, the girls literally glowed in the dark from the residual radium.
Painters were instructed in the "lip, dip, paint" technique, through which they applied radium paint to their brushes, twirled the brush between their lips to make a fine point, and then applied the paint to the watch. If there was leftover paint, sometimes the girls would paint their eyelids, lips, teeth, fingers, and other exposed areas with the paint, as a way to surprise boyfriends during evening dates. Although a single day's quantity of paint contained only a slight amount of radium, the cumulative effect of this exposure would prove catastrophic.
Some girls left their painting jobs to get married and start families. Others left for work opportunities elsewhere, but some stayed for five years or more. All of them began experiencing frightening symptoms, especially considering few of them had reached 30 years old, including soreness in joints and bones, strange dental pain and sore teeth, fatigue, and general weakness. These progressed to tooth loss and bone disintegration, with some women having to have their entire lower jaw removed because the bones had shattered and the gums were highly infected. Others experienced unusual and large growths on their shoulders, spines, or legs. Some women noticed that one leg was getting shorter than the other. Others had repeated miscarriages or babies born with strange conditions. None of these women believed what was happening, and it took many years for medical professionals to begin to suspect it was related to their jobs as dial painters.
Because news wasn't as widely disseminated in the early twentieth century as it is now, these two groups of women didn't know about each other, and their shared health issues, for quite a long time. In fact, it wasn't until some of the workers at the Orange, NJ factory filed a lawsuit and took legal action against the US Radium Corporation, that any widespread attention was paid. Once it was, it influenced a group of women from Ottawa, IL to take similar action, and it was their case that, led by a brilliant and highly sympathetic lawyer Leonard Grossman, changed workplace regulations in the US forever.
The Radium Girls is really two books in one. The first focuses on a few of the individual women who worked at the radium factories, their families, and their legacies. It describes the friendships they shared, the ways they assisted each other, and their particular health struggles as the radium took hold in their bodies. It truly and deeply brings humanity and specificity into a very abstract situation. It's not just about the dial painters as victims, but as human beings.
The second is concerned mainly with the vast cover-up work done by the radium corporations, and the subsequent legal battles between them and the sick/dying workers. The extent to which the corporations mislead their workers, the US government, and the public about radium's danger is mind-boggling. Because there were few regulations in place to protect people against hazards in their workplaces, the companies had no incentive to provide truthful, safety information. When studies were done on radium, and researchers found it to be very harmful, the corporations took action to suppress the publication of these studies, or hired their own "experts" to refute whatever data they didn't like. When some of the women died, corporation representatives were present at the autopsy and confiscated the radioactive bones so that they wouldn't be accounted for later.
When workers decided to file suit against their employers, they had a very difficult time finding representation. Not only were these huge, well-funded corporations with robust legal teams but there were complications regarding the statute of limitations in New Jersey and Illinois. Often, the symptoms of radium poisoning don't appear for months or years, or even longer, so the corporations argued that it couldn't have been their fault. Or they argued that the women were already sick when they were hired (which they weren't), and that should exempt the company from compensating them. Although all the painters were instructed in the "lip, dip, paint" technique, the company contended that the only workers who painted that way were the women filing suit, so it was their fault that they got sick. They also strongly argued that radium was not poisonous.
It was through sympathetic judges and competent legal council that the women were able to receive some compensation for their injuries. However, by the time they finished trying to appeal the decisions, the companies had either gone bankrupt or had re-formed in new states, thereby excluding them from having to actually pay the designated monies. In fact, the son of the Luminous Process Corporation, Joseph A. Kelly Jr., still owns a radium process concern that can be traced back to his father's legacy in Ottawa, IL.
The extent and depth of research in The Radium Girls is astronomical. The author has spent time with the families of these women, with the many case files from the legal disputes, newspapers, and many other sources. Midway through the book, there are a set of reproduced photographs, some showing the debilitating effects of the radium on the girls' bodies. While the work itself is tremendous and very informative, I was a bit off-put by the writing style. Instead of just linking the facts together, which is compelling enough story, the author introduces her own opinions and assumptions into the work. Her imagery was sometimes so pained that it was uncomfortable to read. I wish there was a way to retool the story of these amazing women without adding such unnecessary flourishes.
The Radium Girls is a true David-and-Goliath story, and the reader spends a tremendous time getting to know the many Davids and their incredible lives, most cut too short. It is a shocking story about the extent to which corporations will easily sacrifice their workers in the name of greed. It also shows that there can be justice for those who have suffered from this greed, and that justice can benefit countless numbers of others. These radium girls are true heroes, and I'm so thankful to Kate Moore for providing this detailed record of them.
