Glowing Girls: The Radium Tragedy that Changed History

If someone asked you about radium, you would probably tell them that it’s very dangerous or that it glows. These days, it is well known that this element is a health hazard, but how was this discovered? The first examples of radium poisoning recorded are dial painters who worked during the early 1900s in radium factories. They were named “The Radium Girls” by the media, and the name stuck. Their story sparked a revolution for workers’ rights and inspired safety improvements for the scientific field.

Radium was discovered by Nobel Laureates Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. However, it was not until 1902 that radium was isolated with electrolysis, the process of running an electric current through a solution. Curie expressed in her notes that radium was a highly dangerous element. She and her husband had experienced burns while working with the element and noted that it was harmful in ways akin to x-rays. Even today, more than a century later, the notebooks used by the Curies are too radioactive to be handled. The radium isotope that is commonly discussed is radium- 226. It has a half-life of 1600 years and emits ionizing radiation as it decays, mainly in the form of alpha particles and radon gas. Alpha particles kill cells by destroying their DNA. Additionally, radium is hazardous because it behaves much like calcium; it is easily absorbed by the body through the digestive system and deposits into the body’s tissues.

In the first decade of the 20th century, doctors began experimental radiation treatments with radium because of its similarity to x-rays. Radiation therapy was very successful with cancer patients and helped shrink tumors. It wasn’t long before radium was coined a cure-all. Radium became a part of everyday items such as toothpaste, beauty products, and butter in addition to treatments for any common ailments. Radium water was especially popular, and consisted of putting water in a radium-lined bucket and leaving it overnight. The radium craze took off and the public disregarded the Curies and other scientists’ warnings. There were no studies that showed the effects of radium poisoning, so people were not willing to heed their caution. Radium also became popular for another distinct property: its glow.

Radium watches were all the rage because of their eye-catching luminescent numbers. The original need for them came from the first World War because it was helpful for soldiers to be able to see the time in the trenches. One radium watch factory was located in Orange, New Jersey and began production in 1917. It was owned by the U.S. Radium Corporation (USRC) and had its maximum number of dial painters from 1917 to 1918 at 300 women. Dial painting was considered to be a woman’s position because it required manual dexterity and a light touch. In the factory, conditions were considered very good for the time. Many women were happy to have a job during and after the war. The wage was more than the median income for women. Many dial painters encouraged other women in their families to apply to the factory.

Women were compensated per watch, which motivated them to work quickly. The factory managers encouraged dial painters to lick the paintbrush to create a finer point. There were no protective measures given to women in the factories because they were using a small amount of paint each day. Lead aprons were supplied to the men, and few women employed in other areas of the factory with large amounts of radium. The fact that there were no safety measures did not concern the dial painters because they had been assured that they were safe on several occasions. These claims didn’t change the high-risk of working with radium substance, and its effects soon became prevalent.

The initial effects of radium seemed harmless, and the substance was popular amongst the younger girls in the factory. They would go home from a day of painting with their clothes glowing from the radium exposure. Some would even paint the buttons on their dresses or their nails, but the joy of the radium glow was short lived. Long-term radiation sickness symptoms soon became present among many of the women who worked with radium paint. Common issues included bone cancer, anemia, lesions, and sores. These problems were exhibited in Amelia Maggia, the first dial painter to die from radiation sickness. Amelia worked in the factory for almost a decade and was known to be a diligent employee. Amelia had initially gone to the doctor complaining of a toothache and got an extraction. However, the ache in her jaw continued. When the doctor performed surgery, he found deterioration of her lower jaw bone and tissue damage from the radiation. Most of her jaw was removed and she developed severe anemia. Amelia passed away in September of 1922 at the age of 25, and her death was wrongly attributed to syphilis.

Amelia was not the only dial painter to face such serious health problems. Soon five women who had been employed in the U.S Radium Corporation factory filed a lawsuit against the USRC. However, the company had prepared for the coming battles by funding studies that corroborated their story as soon as concerns among the women had arisen. The legal process was long drawn out, and by the second hearing, most of the Radium Girls were too sick to attend. When the battle finally ended in 1928, the women were financially compensated, but most of the money went towards their own funerals. Additionally, more protective measures were put in place for the women at the USRC factory. Radiation poisoning went on to cause health problems such as bone fractures, necrosis of the jaw, and anemia for many of the women. However, these women began a revolution that affects all of us today.

The Radium Girls’ lawsuit paved the way for improved working conditions in America. This case began the conversation about occupational disease labor law, which mandates that if workers are ill because of conditions in the workplace, they must be compensated. In addition, the severity of radium sickness gave insight about how to improve experimentation with radioactive substances in the future. This includes work on the Manhattan Project, which had many safety precautions to prevent a tragedy like this from occurring again. The study of human radiobiology was also born from this event; survivors of the factory participated in testing in later years. These women are key to making predictions about the effects of radiation fallout and nuclear warfare. The Radium Girls are not to be forgotten – their sacrifices have and continue to save many lives.