The Radium Girls

The Living Dead

At the turn of the century Marie and Pierre Curie discovered a new element, Radium. It was supposed to be a wonder drug capable of curing everything. It made images on photographic plates, glowed in the dark, killed cancer cells, and increased the count of white blood cells. Little did they know what it was truly capable of. That it could cause burns and lesions. That it could turn perfectly healthy people into virtual zombies with oozing wounds and bodies rotting from the inside out. This is their story.

 Radium  was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898 when they were trying to determine if elements other than uranium were radioactive. It was heralded as a wonder element because of its effects on human tissue. It was capable of killing germs and bacteria and thus it was used by soldiers during World War I as an antiseptic. Radium was capable of increasing the count of white blood cells which led to its rising popularity in the medical world. Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered that radium could damage perfectly healthy tissue when he transported it to the USA in his vest pocket. Pierre Curie also held radium against his skin to observe the effect that this would have on him.

This lead to radium being used to treat cancer because its radiation was capable of killing cancerous cells. This practice was called radium therapy or Curietherapy (brachytherapy). As with all new discoveries, it was not well understood at the time and despite the fact that it was known that it could harm healthy cells as well as cancerous cells, the public became enamored of its perceived health effects. More information on this can be found  here .

We currently know that all radioisotopes have a half-life that is unique to them. The half-life is defined as being the time it takes for the amount of a radioisotope to be reduced by half. Radium-226 has a half-life of 1600 years. Thus, given 1 gram of Radium-226, after 1 half-life, 1600 years, half of a gram would remain. Another way of thinking about this is that after 1 half-life, the amount of radiation coming from the source would be reduced by 1 half. If the amount of radiation in a factory due to radium is 1000x higher than normal, then after 1 half-life the amount of radiation would be 500x higher than normal without outside intervention. After 2 half-lives it would be 250x higher than normal. At this rate, it would then take about 10 half-lives for the amount of radiation to return to normal or 16,000 years. When radium was discovered, this wasn't well known. Both Marie and Pierre Curie would later die from the effects of radiation. More information on radioactive half-life can be found  here .

During the late 1910's - 1920s there was a fad for radium products. “There was this sense that radiation is a very powerful but poorly understood force in the universe, and maybe it’s the ultimate healing force,” said Cleveland radiation oncologist Roger Macklis (Dotinga, 2020). There were a plethora of radioactive cures that used or claimed to use radium.

Some radium-infused products were toothpaste, cosmetics, underwear, milk, butter, and pesticide. Most of these products couldn't possibly have real radium because it was too expensive at $120,000 a gram or $2.2 million in today's currency (Moore, The Radium Girls, 2017). Nevertheless, everyone wanted to get their hands on radium, akin to everyone trying to get the new iPhone or next generation console.

Given that the dial painters took home about $20 a week, it is likely that a trace amount of radium was used in these cosmetic items. They made 3x more than the average factory worker so one can imagine spending a day's income on special night cream or rouge for the added benefit of radium and its purported health effects.

This Revigator remains radioactive to this day. A scrotal radioendoctrinator, made during the 1920s, is currently giving off about 1000x more radiation than a radium dial watch. One such endoctrinator that was held at the National Atomic Testing Museum had to be removed due to the amount of radiation that it was giving off. It was designed to cure male impotence but if used as directed it would most likely have caused sterility, radiation burns, and cancer. It would take several half-lives to reduce its radioactivity to a safe level. More information of this can be found  here .

Radium is an emitter of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. Alpha radiation is basically a helium nucleus being ejected from the radioisotope. It is the heaviest form of ionizing radiation and it has a charge. Because of its mass and charge it can't travel very far through matter and it can be stopped by a sheet of paper. Our skin is sufficient to stop alpha radiation, that is the outermost layer would absorb it but it wouldn't penetrate deeply into our bodies. Beta radiation corresponds to an electron or positron, a positively charged electron. They are similar to alpha particles in that they have a charge. However, they are able to travel further than alpha particles because they have a small mass. The mass of the electron is negligible compared to an atom's mass. Beta particles can penetrate into deeper tissue than alphas but they can be stopped with aluminum foil. Gamma radiation can travel further than alpha and beta particles. Gamma rays are basically x-rays, both are forms of high energy light, however when they were discovered it was thought that only x-rays came from electronic transitions while gamma rays came from nuclear transitions. Transitions are when electrons or nuclei change their energy levels by absorbing or emitting radiation. It wasn't known that electronic transitions could be energetic enough to make gamma rays, this is why their regions overlap when you look at the electromagnetic spectrum. Of the three forms of ionizing radiation, alpha radiation is the worst when the source is inside of the body because it can't travel far. It readily ionizes anything in its vicinity and if it is inside of the body it will likely interact with something inside of the body. Beta and gamma radiation have a higher chance of getting out of the body. "It was the gamma and beta rays the lab workers protected themselves against with their lead aprons; they didn't need to worry about the alpha rays, as they could do no harm, being unable to penetrate skin" (Moore, The Radium Girls, 2017).

Radium was used industrially to manufacture watch dials so that they would glow in the dark. During this time period they didn't have a way of illuminating dials on military equipment or watches, thus they used radium-infused paints to make the dials glow in the dark.

Radioactive paint was used to produce dials and clock faces. These dials and clock faces were in high demand especially due to World War I. They are still radioactive to this day.

These dials were hand painted by women in factories throughout the USA. The most famous group of factory workers were located in Newark and Orange New Jersey as well as Ottawa Illinois.

In New Jersey, there were two locations that the dials were painted. The Radium Luminous Materials Corporation was located at 3rd St. in Newark New Jersey. They later changed their name to United States Radium and relocated to 422 - 432 Alden Street in Orange New Jersey.

Radium dials were painted on the building to the left. Radium was crystallized in the building on the right. There is no telling how many people were affected by the radiation coming from this site despite it being closed for decades.

Dials were painted at Radium Dial which was located at 1022 Columbus Street in Ottawa Illinois, across from St. Columba Church. It was known as the old high school. A competitor open up a few blocks away called Luminous Processes. It was located at the corner of Jefferson and Clinton Streets.

In the USA the factory workers were instructed to paint the dials by dipping the brush into the paint, using their lips to make a fine tip, and then painting the dials. They were paid about 1.5 cents a watch and the average worker made about $20 a week. In today's currency that would be about $370 for girls and young women without a high school diploma. The best painters made about $2080 a year or about $40,000 a year in today's currency (Moore, The Radium Girls, 2017).

Painting watch dials was highly lucrative for the painters. The women were able to afford luxuries such as high heels, silks, and furs. Some would even dress in their finery while working so that their clothing would get infused with the radium paint. Some would apply the paint as makeup in the dark room before going out. Little did they know that radium was replacing the calcium in their bones and teeth with dire effects. As the women began to get sick they had no idea what was going on. Some would have aches in their legs, hips, or shoulders while others would have tooth aches. Pieces of teeth and bone would fall out of their mouths while eating or talking.

Amelia 'Mollie' Maggia was one of the first documented cases of radium poisoning, even though her birth certificate claims that she died from syphilis. She had a number of teeth removed to stop the pain in her jaw and to stop the infection that was spreading in her mouth, but to no avail. The wounds from the removed teeth failed to heal and only made matters worse. Her jawbone was removed, not by surgery, but from merely lifting it from the ruin that remained of her mouth by Dr. Knef during a dental examination. Her jawbone was rotting in her mouth, a condition known as necrosis of the jaw. She was only in her twenties when the effects of the radium that she ingested made itself known and not just in her teeth but in the rheumatism in her feet and hips. At the age of 24 she died from a hemorrhage of her jugular artery, another effect of radium poisoning. Her jawbone, along with the rest of her remains, are still radioactive to this day.

"The radium was in the very heart of her bones, in close proximity to her bone marrow, which was constantly bombarded by rays from the radioactive deposits" (Moore, The Radium Girls, 2017). According to the doctor, the radium was '"...approximately one-hundredth of an inch from the blood-forming centers"' (Moore, The Radium Girls, 2017). It would be virtually impossible for the alpha particles to make their way out of their bodies without coming into contact with something. " Their legs broke underneath them. Their spines collapsed ", according to Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner's Handbook (Hersher, 2014). Radium didn't just affect their teeth, it went into their arms, legs, hips, and backs. Some of the painters had legs that shortened because of the effects of radium. Fractures and breaks wouldn't heal because of the honeycombing effect of radium on their bones. It created microscopic holes in their bones. Grace Fryer, a dial painter, had to wear a steel back brace to reduce her pain and increase her mobility.

A number of women came forward to try and seek legal redress for their diseases. One of the most notable was Grace Fryer. She was one of the first to try and sue the company due to her sickness. After doctors were able to prove that the workers were poisoned with radium, the women had to fight an uphill battle to prove that the statue of limitations didn't apply to their case which only gave them 5 months to bring a case against their employer, despite the fact that radium, like most carcinogens, takes time to build up and show any symptoms. In fact, some of the New Jersey dial workers weren't diagnosed with radium poisoning until years after they stopped working for the company. Grace Fryer, Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, and sisters Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice won a hard-fought lawsuit against the United States Radium Company and got them to agree to a settlement.

Similar things were happening in Ottawa Illinois. The dial painters there began to sicken from radium poisoning and developed the same maladies suffered by their counterparts in New Jersey. The above image shows a picture of Charlotte Purcell who had her left arm amputated due to the radium-induced sarcoma that was growing there. Catherine Wolfe Donohue, in the bottom image, was the woman who led the lawsuit in Illinois despite being so weak in her latter days that she was bed ridden. Some more information on this can be found  here .

Radium-induced sarcomas were often fatal if they were not removed.

The above image shows Catherine and Charlotte demonstrating how they were taught to paint the dials for Radium Dial. Catherine was too weak to attend court physically therefore the judge allowed the court to be carried out in her house. Catherine won her law suit against Radium Dial but it was appealed and she died before she won the appeal. She weighed around 60 pounds at the time of her death. Her corpse, as well as those of the other radium girls, will remain radioactive for millennia. More newspaper clippings can be found  here .

The sites were the dial workers painted were contaminated by radium because most of the radium paint was made in the factories themselves. Furthermore, it was virtually impossible for the radium to not get on anything. The dial workers went home covered in radium dust and would have to scrub vigorously to have any hope of removing all of it. The radium dust "scattered everywhere,...leaving its trace as it wound around the women's limbs, across their cheeks, down the backs of their necks and around their waists" (Moore, The Radium Girls, 2017). The doctors who observed the painters even noted that the paint '"persisted in their skin" after vigorous washing' (Moore, The Radium Girls, 2017)." It should come to no surprise that the factories themselves were equally contaminated by radium. The map above shows the network of wells monitored by the New Jersey Ambient Ground Water Quality Monitoring Network. The orange circles are showing the 30 day count of alpha radiation in the wells while the green pens show the location of the factories. I had initially expected to find alpha radiation near the factories, but there aren't any wells in those areas. This could be due to the effects of radium. It's half-life of 1600 years means that it will take millennia for the radiation to reduce to a safe level naturally. Thus, the site of the United States Radium was declared a Superfund Site so that it could be properly cleansed of radiation.

The situation in Ottawa was more dire than that of New Jersey. Radium Dial was demolished before the radiation was properly cleaned up. Parts of the factory were used to as fill for public buildings in the city including schools, municipal buildings and housing, thus spreading radiation every further. This was documented in the 1987 documentary  Radium City . The documentary also mentioned how people and animals were still getting sick from the radium, decades after the fact. The bodies of the dial workers are buried in lead lined coffins to contain the radiation. The above map shows the sites that were contaminated by the misuse of radioactive materials. All of the sites had to be cleaned up by the EPA to reduce the risks of cancer for the residents of Ottawa. To this day the bones of the painters are still radioactive as there is no way to get the radium out of their bodies. Residents continue to suffer from the lingering radiation from the Superfund sites including rare birth defects and clusters of cancers (Zhang, 2017). Even Marie Curie's former  lab  was radioactive and had to be decontaminated to remove the radiation. It was dubbed ' Chernobyl on the Seine ' because of the amount of radiation that was present despite the passage of over 100 years.

Radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie. About 20 years after it was discovered, it was being used in a wide variety of products, one of which was the radium dial, a glow-in-the-dark watch illuminated with a radium paint, despite it not being well understood at the time. A consequence of using a new substance that isn't well known is the potential side effects of the substance. This was highlighted in the case of the 'Radium Girls', factory workers who painted the dials with brushes that they were instructed to put in their mouths to produce a fine tip capable of painting the small numbers on the dials. Workers who couldn't do this, or who didn't paint quickly enough were easily replaced. It is no surprise to us that these workers got sick, but if we cast their plight into our era it is not to hard to imagine workers in a factory getting sick from assembling cars. This is because we have legislation to protect factory workers from not only accidents on the job, but also being forced to work with potentially unsafe substances. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration, OSHA, guarantees a worker's rights to a safe workplace. OSHA was established in 1970 by Richard Nixon partly due to the suffering of the 'Radium Girls'. This is especially relevant while living amidst a global pandemic. More information on this can be found  here  and  here . In the words of David Brancaccio and Katie Long "It's against the law for employers to make you sick". How long would it take for the radioactivity of a sample of radium to be reduced to 12.5% of its current value? What type of radiation does radium emit? Why does radium end up in the bones and teeth? How does the plight of the 'Radium Girls' effect us today in the age of SARS Cov-2?