Who are the "radium girls"?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

They licked their brushes in order to more accurately apply paint to the dials with a pointed tip. For fun, they tinted their nails and teeth. And after the change, they literally shone. Not for joy - for radioluminescent paint. And no one told them that this paint would kill them.

It was 1917, and it was a dream job for a female patriot - at the United States Radium Corporation factory in Orange, New Jersey. Firstly, this is how women helped soldiers at the front - U. S. Radium was the main supplier of watches for the army. Secondly, the salary was phenomenal at the time. Thirdly, the work itself - do not hit the lying person: know yourself lick the brush, dip it in paint and apply it to the dials and hands.

As soon as a thin layer of white paint lay on the dial, the fingertips of the workers began to glow. But they weren't worried: when they were hired, every one of them was reassured that the paint was perfectly safe. This is a new technology that is definitely not dangerous.

“The first thing we asked was," Won't this thing hurt us? " - recalls May Cubberly. - Naturally, you will not pull in your mouth that which is dangerous. But Mr. Savoy, the manager, has assured us that it is completely safe, we have nothing to fear."

Most of them were still teenagers - with airy brushes, as if made for delicate work. The news of such a lucrative job spread at the speed of light, but only among their own - neighbors, classmates and sisters worked side by side.

The luminescence was part of the charm of this work - the workers were nicknamed ghost girls. Quite creepy if you know the end of this story. But then they were not at all scared. They specially wore the best dresses so that after a change in luminous outfits, they would go to a dance.

Is there no danger?

Did the girls' employers know that radium was a threat? Certainly. From the very moment the element was discovered, it became known about the danger it poses. Marie Curie suffered from radiation burns. People were dying from radium poisoning long before the first girl took a paintbrush in her mouth. In the companies that worked with radium, the men wore lead aprons.

The problem was that the owners of the factory were sure that the girls were not in danger, because the amount of radium they had to work with was too small. In those years, they believed that such an amount was even good for health: people drank radium water, and in stores you could buy cosmetics or toothpaste with radium paint.

First death and investigation

In 1922, Molly Maggia retired from the factory due to illness. She did not know what was wrong with her - it all started with a bad tooth. The dentist removed it, but the next one started to hurt, so I had to remove it too. In its place, ulcers arose, filled with blood and pus.

The pains in her arms and legs were so excruciating that she could not walk. The doctor, convinced that Molly was suffering from rheumatism, prescribed aspirin to her.

The mysterious infection spread: she lost all of her teeth, her lower jaw, and her earlobes were "one solid abscess." When the dentist gently touched her jaw, she broke …

She crumbled.

The girls began to get sick one after another: they suffered from anemia, frequent fractures and necrosis of the jaw - a condition now known as "radium jaw". And in the end they died.

USRC denied any connection between the deaths of the girls and the radium paint. Moreover, the death of the first girl officially occurred as a result of syphilis, as they wrote in the conclusion. The president of the company was furious when one of the investigations showed that there was indeed a link between radium and the disease. Instead of admitting guilt, he bribed scientists to give a false opinion and refused to pay the girls for treatment.

Hand in hand

Former factory workers have banded together to confront injustice. Plus, the factory was still hiring people. "I'm not doing this for myself," said Grace Fryer, trying to get justice. "I think of hundreds of girls for whom I can serve as an example."

Grace found a lawyer, although not without difficulty: few human rights activists wanted to confront huge corporations. The horror is that at that time even the disease itself was not known.

In 1927, a young ambitious lawyer, Raymond Berry, took up the case, Grace and four other girls were at the center of an international scandal. Meanwhile, according to forecasts, they had only 4 months to live … In the fall of 1928, the parties reached an agreement, without bringing the case to a full-fledged trial by a jury.

The settlement agreement provided for a one-time payment of $ 10,000 ($ 137,000 in 2014 prices) to each of the "radium girls" and the establishment of an annual pension of $ 600 ($ 8,200 in 2014 prices) until the end of their lives, as well as payment by the company of all legal and medical costs associated with the resulting illness.

The head of the factory said that "if they knew about the danger to which their workers were exposed, they would immediately suspend work."

Those girls who did not die of jaw problems died from sarcomas the size of "two footballs." Catherine Wolfe, dying in 1938, testified right in bed - thanks to her, many other girls were paid money.