Holy smokes is it really 2023?! Insert generic phrase about how fast time seems to go here. Wanna know my New Year’s resolution? To keep writing more Feminist Friday blog posts, of course! This month I decided to reach back into the Facebook archives for another favorite post. And instead of one specific woman, we’re looking at a whole group of ladies who changed the course of labor laws in this country. That’s right; I’m talking ‘bout the Radium Girls!
But First, a Super Short History of Radium
(Note: I am not a scientist, nor is this a blog post about radium, so cut me a lot of slack.) Discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Currie, radium was first used as a cancer treatment. Still, it quickly became a staple of many health and beauty products, including toothpaste, hair creams, and even infused in water for spa treatments, as well as luminescent paint. However, by the early 1900s, scientists and doctors realized radium was not a miracle cure-all but a highly radioactive substance. However, companies still utilized the luminescent properties, which is where we segue into our story.
“Lip, Dip, Paint”
In 1917, the United States Radium Corporation opened a factory in Orange, New Jersey. Their biggest product was radioluminescent watches for the U.S. military. The Radium Dial Company opened its doors in Ottawa, IL, in 1922 with the same product of radioluminescent timepieces, this time for the public. Both companies hired mainly women for the factory floor, as well as several other companies working with radioluminescent paint. Some 4,000 women worked in similar factories across the U.S. and Canada.
At all of these places, the women were told the paint they were working with was harmless, leading the women to utilize the “lip, dip, paint” technique: the women would stick the bristles of the camel hair brushes they used into their mouths, creating a point, which they would then dip into the paint, paint a number or two, and repeat the process. They would even paint their nails and teeth with the stuff as a way to have some fun. While this was all going on, the scientists who worked for these companies, knowing the danger of radium, would wear protective gear while handling the substance. Still, no one told the women on the factory floor.
Something is Wrong
Dentists were the first health officials to notice issues with the Radium Girls: dental pain, loose teeth, ulcers and lesions of the mouth, tooth extraction wounds not healing, to the more extreme necrosis of the jaw. The first Radium Girl to die was Molly Maggia in 1922, and by the time of her death, her jaw had completely eroded, falling away from her head. Her death certificate stated she died of syphilis. Now some of the factory officials started to worry, not about the girls themselves, oh no. Their workforce was getting sick, and that had a huge impact…on their profits. The U.S. Radium Corporation decided to get industrial hygiene expert Cecil Drinker from the Harvard School of Public Health to see what the deal was. He and his colleagues were appalled at the lack of protection for the women (some as young as 15!) on the factory floor. His report said as much.
Now U.S. Radium Corporation’s president, Arthur Roeder, was unhappy with this report. He said that the women contracted some contagious infection outside of the factory - and there was an internal report that totally proved his point. A report that Roeder refused to show Drinker. When Drinker said he would publish the report, Roeder threatened to sue. Does anyone else picture Roeder as some obese man in a suit, champing on a fat cigar and squinting threateningly at Drinker through the smoke? With a stupid fedora that’s too small for his head. Ugh, he sounds like the worst. Anyway, Drinker’s colleague at the HSPH, Alice Hamilton, refused to budge, especially when she found out that U.S. Radium Corporation turned in a very heavily altered version of Drinker’s report to the New Jersey Department of Labor. This version said the girls were totally fine; what is everyone freaking out about? Of course, Drinker was incredibly ticked off and published the correct report, lawsuit be damned.
They’re Not Gonna Take It
By 1924, 50 more women had died, and the companies, who now realized what was happening, urged doctors to attribute these deaths to anything else, syphilis being the usually stated cause of death. By 1925, these women had had enough, and Grace Fryer of U.S. Radium decided to take legal action. It would be TWO YEARS before she could even find a lawyer willing to take her case. By the first court appearance in January of 1928, four more women joined the case: Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, and sisters Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice. Two could not appear in court due to their health, and the remaining women were so weak they couldn’t raise their arms to take the oath.
Thanks to the New Jersey Consumers League, media coverage was intense, and the company settled later that year. They also ruled that the safety recommendations put forth by Cecil Drinker be implemented, which led to the closure of that factory. However, in Illinois, it would be ten more years before the women of Radium Dial would receive justice. However, Radium Dial tried to appeal the court’s decision, and by 1939 the case made its way to the Supreme Court, which decided not to hear the case and uphold lower court rulings, meaning the Radium Girls had won. From then on, the women in these factories were given protective gear on the factory floor to prevent them from ingesting or directly handling the radium.
Conclusion
Due to these cases, the right of individual workers to sue for damages from corporations due to labor abuse was established, as well as the creation of the occupational disease labor law. Radium paint was used into the 70s, but the loss of life was eliminated. To the Radium Girls, who stood up for their rights and, in doing so, improved the lives of all of us, we honor you!
Sources
“TO BEGIN TWO SUITS AGAINST RADIUM CO.” New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1925/06/24/archives/to-begin-two-suits-against-radium-co-newark-attorneys-say-two-women.html
“A Glow in the Dark, and a Lesson in Scientific Peril” New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/06/science/a-glow-in-the-dark-and-a-lesson-in-scientific-peril.html
“Deadly occupation, forged report” Harvard Chan School of Public Health: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/centennial-radium-forged-report/
“The Radium Girls” Mark Neuzil and Bill Kovarik: https://web.archive.org/web/20090721113733/http://www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/radium.html