![]() ![]() Radium Corporation and scientists who were familiar with the effects of radium. Nobody knew it was harmful, except the owners of the U.S. It didn’t have any taste, and I didn’t know it was harmful.” (1) “I think I pointed mine with my lips about six times to every watch dial. “Our instructors told us to point them with our lips,” she said. ![]() After a few strokes, the brushes would lose their shape, and the women couldn’t paint accurately. ![]() They mixed up glue, water and radium powder into a glowing greenish-white paint, and carefully applied it with a camel hair brush to the dial numbers. Racks of dials waiting to be painted sat next to each woman’s chair. Grace started working in the spring of 1917 with 70 other women in a large, dusty room filled with long tables. They all had a good laugh, then got back to work, painting a glow-in-the-dark radium compound on the dials of watches, clocks, altimeters and other instruments. The women even painted their nails and their teeth to surprise their boyfriends when the lights went out. But everyone knew the stuff was harmless. It was a little strange, Fryer said, that when she blew her nose, her handkerchief glowed in the dark. Grace Fryer and the other women at the radium factory in Orange, New Jersey, had no idea that they were being poisoned. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.The Doors of Justice are barred to the “Doomed Radium Victims,” and notes explain that it is due to “statute of limitations, summer vacation, postponement,” in this New York World editorial cartoon.īy Bill Kovarik and Mark Neuzil, from Mass Media and Environmental Conflict (Sage, 1996), p. Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. A timely story of corporate greed and the brave figures that stood up to fight for their lives, these women and their voices will shine for years to come. ![]() And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come. And, until they begin to come forward.Īs the women start to speak out on the corruption, the factories that once offered golden opportunities ignore all claims of the gruesome side effects. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive - until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe they light up the night like industrious fireflies. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright. In the dark years of the First World War, radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. in the early 20th century, and their brave and groundbreaking battle to strengthen workers' rights, even as the fatal poison claimed their own lives. A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts Bestseller!įor fans of Hidden Figures, comes the incredible true story of the women heroes who were exposed to radium in factories across the U.S. ![]()
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