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The Discovery of Radium
Inspired by Becquerel's theory of spontaneous radioactivity, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium, in the form of radium chloride, on December 21, 1898. It was Marie who developed a method of isolating radium, making it available for further study. Today, we know the half lives are 3.5 days for radium-224, 1,600 years for radium-226, and 6.7 years for radium- 228 - the most common isotopes of radium. -
Toxic Love
A love affair with radium began shortly after it's discovery. Throughout the early 20th century, radium was put in lipstick, toothpaste, drinking water, and even a patent medicine called Radithor. It consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum 1 microcurie (37 kBq) each of the radium 226 and 228 isotopes. -
The United States Radium Corporation
The United States Radium Corporation, founded in 1914 as the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation, found success by developing luminescent paint. The company opened several factories, including one in Orange, NJ. Demand for dials and aircraft instruments painted with the trademarked Undark paint surged. The work was done mostly by women who were told to keep a fine tip on their brushes by licking them, and thereby ingesting radium. The factory employed up to 300 women. -
Female Factory Workers Paint Watch Dials
Female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with radium-laced paint were known as the Radium Girls. Three different factories were involved: one in Orange, New Jersey, beginning around 1917; one in Ottawa, Illinois, beginning in the early 1920s; and a third facility in Waterbury, Connecticut, also in the 1920s. -
Radium Dial Company
The Radium Dial Company was established in Ottawa, Illinois (after moving from Chicago), in 1922. The company's largest client was Westclox Corporation in Peru, Illinois. Dials painted in Ottawa appeared on Westclox's popular Big Ben, Baby Ben and travel clocks. Radium Dial hired young women to paint the dials, using the same "lip, dip, paint" approach as the women in New Jersey and by another unaffiliated plant in Waterbury, Connecticut, that supplied the Waterbury Clock Company. -
The First Death
Dental pain, loose teeth, teeth failing out, lesions and ulcers, and the failure of tooth extractions to heal were some of the first symptoms of radiation sickness to occur. Many of the women later began to develop anemia, bone fractures, and necrosis of the jaw, which is now known as radium jaw. In 1922, the first dial painter died. Her jaw fell away from her skull before death. -
More deaths
An independent statistician from Prudential Insurance Company documented incurable
jaw infections and anemia among two dead, and 12 living dial painters. The Essex County Medical Examiner noted the “detection of gamma rays from living dial
painters, and the exhalation of radon from their lungs.” The sister of a former dial painter died from radiation exposure, caused by sharing a bed
with her sister. -
Radium Girls Lawsuit
Grace Fryer, a radium worker in Orange decides to sue The US Radium Corporation. It takes her two years to find an attorney and in 1927, Raymond Berry takes her case. In 1928, a total of five workers – dubbed the Radium Girls, appear in court for the first time. They ask for $250K in compensation for pain and medical expenses. The case was rife with misinformation and fraud. There were also accusations of the women having "reputations" and that their medical issues were caused by syphilis. -
Settlement
None of the Radium Girls were able to raise their arms to take oath on the stand. Grace Fryer had lost all her teeth and required a back brace to be able to sit up. Before their intentionally delayed trial was set to reconvene, the women were given an offer to settle out of court. Each agreed to not hold US Radium liable, was given $10,000, and $600 per year while they lived, plus medical expense coverage. The judge who negotiated the settlement was a shareholder in U.S. Radium Corporation. -
Legacy
The last of the five Radium Girls died in the 1930s.
Medical research found that workers had ingested a few hundred to a few thousand microcuries of radium, per year. The maximum safe exposure is considered to be 1/10 of a microcurie. The Radium Girls case established occupational disease labor law and laid the groundwork for for other laws. In 1949, Congress passed a bill making all occupational disease compensable, and extended the time for workers to discover illness and file a claim.