Radium Girls: Women spirit

The case described in this article is historical in manyrequests from the companies not to release their
ways especially in the fields of health physics and thedata.
labor rights movement. The whole case revolvesIn 1925 the chief medical examiner of Essex County,
around the United States Radium Corporation.New Jersey published a report that stated that the
Founded in 1914 in Newark, New Jersey, thiscause of bone disease and aplastic anemia, and
company produced uranium from carnotite ore anddeaths of the workers was radium. Five of the
later moved into the business of producingsurvived woman sued their employer in a historical
radioluminescent paint Undark. They began to hirecase that later established the right of individual
workers around 1917, mostly women, whose jobworkers who contract occupational diseases to sue
was to paint watches with special glow-in-the-darktheir employers for this. The first worker who
paint, where radium was one of the ingredients. Thedecided to sue was Grace Fryer, but it took her two
women were told that the paint was harmless andyears to find a lawyer that would take on U.S.
even encouraged to sharpen the brushes they usedRadium. Eventually she found one and was joined by
during work to with their tongues and fingers.four more ill workers. The whole case received a lot
Unaware of the danger some of the girls evenof media attention and so it became impossible to
painted their fingernails, faces and teeth, to surprisedeny the true facts. This triggered big changes in the
their boyfriends in the dark or just for fun. Naturallygoverning labor safety standards. The United States
the girls received huge doses of radiation, which ledRadium was closed in 1927, mostly because of this
to bone diseases and ultimately deaths. It islegal case. The case itself was settled out of court in
important to note that the owners and their1928. The company was considered to take too
scientists were familiar with the effects of radiummuch time for settling the case intentionally, because
and avoided the dangerous chemical with leadmost of the workers were too ill to survive and
screens, masks and tongs. After a certain period ofreceive compensation. The settlement for each of
time many of the women began to suffer fromthe girls was $10,000 and a $600 per year annuity
fractures and necrosis of the jaw (later named thewhile they lived, plus coverage of all the medical and
Radium Jaw condition). The United States Radiumlegal expenses.
Corporation and some other watch-dial companiesThe Radium Girls became a well known case and was
denied the fact that the compound used to paintreferenced in many books and movies. The
watches was radioactive and rejected the claims,contamination was so serious that even today the
stating that the medical issues appeared from othergraves of the workers can be detected with Geiger
medical conditions. Doctors, dentists, and researcherscounter.
who were working on the radium cases received