Radium girls: the big cover-up of the 20th century [contains a graphic image]

As United States of America entered World War I in 1917 many young women started working in clock factories in countries such as Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey. The discovery of radium created a lot of new occupations such as painting dials at the clock factories. The clocks were used primarily by the US military but the also became popular with the general public because the glowed in the dark. The job was fairly easy and payed well. It consisted of a practice called lip-pointing where the girls would put the paintbrushes between their lips in order to make a sharp and precise point.

Grace Fryer. Source: telegraph.co.uk

At the time everyone thought radium was harmless even though the founder Marie Curie herself suffered radiation burns. Radium was considered a miracle, a cure for every unknown and untreated disease. It was marketed as a product beneficial to health and as such added to water, food, cosmetics and more.

Chocolate with radium. Source: seriouseats.com

In 1922 the first of the workers started getting sick. Her name was Amelia Maggia and her troubles started with an aching tooth. As many girls did, Maggia eventually lost all of her teeth, suffered from pains in her joints and jaw necrosis. She passed away on September 12 the same year.

U.S. Radium, a company in New Jersey, that employed Maggia denied responsibility for her death. Since 1922 the women who worked in this company tried to get recognition and compensation for their illnesses. It was in the interest of the company, the state of New Jersey and the government to keep these cases quiet. This started a long list of cover ups.

It wasn't until 1924 when the National Consumers League got interested in the cases that progress was made. It was a long uphill battle to find experts and scientist who would prove the link between radium and the illnesses as well as lawyers who would take U.S. Radium to court. In 1925 Dr Harrison Maitland performed a study and designed a test that proved that radium was poisoning the women.

Grace Fryer was determined to get justice and pervent future cases of radium poisoning as many women were suffering and dying from cancer, sarcoma and tumors. She was joined by Katherine Schaub, Quinta McDonald, Albina Larice and Edna Hussman. Grace endured over a dozen operations to remove teeth and bone. She also wore foot and back braces. Katherine suffered from a radium jaw which lead to a removal of several teeth and jaw bone. Quinta's knees and hips deteriorated so much she could barely move. Albina lost two children because of her disease. Edna lost complete movement of one arm and also suffered from knee and hip pains.

A dial painter with sarcoma of her chin caused by radium.
Source: waterburyobserver.org

Raymond Berry accepted the cases in 1927. The first hurdle he had to pass was proving that the cases were filed within the statue of limitations which was two years. He did this by arguing that the women could not have known that the were suffering from radium poisoning before a doctor diagnosed them. By doing this all five women who were part of the lawsuit fell into the two year frame. Berry also needed to prove that U.S. Radium knew about the effects of radium and did everything to conceal the evidence as well as bribe scientists and suppress the publication of results.

The company got a postponement until September 1928 which was too long of a wait for the women whose health was deteriorating. The media influenced the trials a lot with the constant talk about the women and the injustice that came upon them. Because of the negative publicity U.S. Radium decided to settle the cases out of court. Each woman received a payment of 15000 dollars as well as all paid medical expenses and a yearly pension of 600 dollars. National Consumers League managed to pressure the state of New Jersey to ban factories such as U.S. Radium from working in their state.

Cartoon published in the American Weekly.
Source: philosophyofscienceportal.blogspot.rs

In the other two countries cases went under the radar and away from the eye of the public. This was because the companies controlled the government agencies much more in Connecticut and Illinois and therefore were able to get quick out of court settlements which were significantly less than those in New Jersey.

These cases were the first one where an employer was held accountable for the health of its employees. They also led to the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which protects workers. These brave women changed workers rights tremendously. Their lives ended painfully and way too fast but should be celebrated and never forgotten.

Sources and for further reading:
Clark, C. (1997). Radium girls, Women and industrial health reform:1910-1935. University of North Carolina.
Johnson, R. R. (2012). Romancing the Atom: Nuclear Infatuation from the Radium Girls to Fukushima. ABC-CLIO.