Fatally poisoned by the glowing paint they used

Fatally poisoned by the glowing paint they used on the joh,
the 'Radium Girls' challenged workplace safety rules and
helped shed light on the unseen dangers of radioactivity
hen Grace Fryer landed a
joh at the United States
Radium Corporation factory
in Orange, New Jersey, in
1917, she must have felt special and very lucky. Along
with 70 other young women hired at the plant that
spring. Fryer would be earning more than triple the
average factory-floor wage to apply a newly formulated
luminescent paint to watches, clocks, compasses and an
assortment of military instruments. Upon the United
States entry into World War I in April, there developed
a demand for a wide variety of devices to be coated with
the glowing radium-treated paint, trade named Undark.
U.S. Radium needed hundreds of new workers to tiilfjll
its lucrative contracts and found young women to be
ideally suited for the intense concentration and nimble
handwork that dial painting required. It was comfortable and pleasant compared to most factory work of the
time, and the dial painters had no reason to believe this
amazing new substance called radium wasn't perfectly
safe to work vnth.
As has often been repeated in the past century and a
half of quantum leaps in science, industry and medicine,
ovcrexuberance to adopt the latest discoveries has sometimes surpassed our ability to completely understand their
potential negative effects. One striking example of this is
the case of the "Radium Girls"—five U.S. Radium dial
painters who contributed significantly to expanding the
legal protections afforded American workers and increasing public awareness of the dangers of radioactivity.
Radioactivity was a relatively new and poorly understood phenomenon in the early 20th century. German
physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered
X-rays, and their initial diagnostic value, in 1895. Since
the rays could not be felt by the senses, and there
seemed to be no immediate effect on exposed skin, the
the general consensus was that X-rays were harmless.
There were, however, reports of X-ray related injuries
as early as 1896, including the case of Thomas Edison's
assistant, Clarence Dally, who suffered from severe
radiodermatitis that resulted in the amputation of his
arm and his subsequent death in 1904. By the late
1890s, there were numerous reports in scientific literature of radiation skin burns and loss of hair, testimony
to the apparent cavalier attitudes and the large doses
being used. Ironically, those reports of radiation injury
led physicians to recognize the possible therapeutic
value of the rays in treating inoperable cancers.
Within weeks of Roentgen's discovery of X-rays,
Henri Becquerel identified radioactivity, and in 1898
Marie and Pierre Curie reported the discovery of the
chemical element radium, found in trace amounts in
uranium ores. The Curies were amazed and delighted
that their new element glowed in the dark. Soon radium
was being hailed as the wonder substance of the new
20th century, and was ascribed the power to cure everything from arthritis to cancer. The potential of radium
seemed infinite but the hazards of working directly with
radioactivity were not yet widely recognized, and many
seientists, including the Curies, suffered skin lesions—
often from carrying samples of radioactive materials in
their pockets.
In 1902 radium was isolated into pure metal by Marie
Curie and Andre-Louis Debierne. Soon after that the
American electrical engineer William J. Hammer con-
Grace Fryer (top) was one of five women who sued U.S. Radium Corporation in 1927 for debilitating illness caused by her
prolonged exposure to radium. During World War I, Fryer and the other "Radium Girls" applied luminescent radiumbased paint to clock dials (center), compasses and airplane instruments for the U.S. military. Skilled dial painters (bottom) could paint hundreds of dials a day and earn up to three times more than the average factory wage at the time.
OPPOSITE TOP: COUBTESV OF ROSS MUIXNEB. DEADLY G(.CW: THE HADIUM DIAL IVOBKFR T
CENTER OAK RIDGE ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES; BOTTOM UMDNJ COLIECTIONS
OCTOBER 2007 .'VMI-.RICAN HISTORY 33
For fiin, the women would paint their fingernails and teeth
with the glowing mixture and then turn off the lights J
cocted a radium paint that could be used on scientific instruments to make them visible in the
dark. At that time, however, the mining and
extraction of radium was very expensive. But
with the onset of World War I, its application
to military instruments and watches drove an
ever-burgeoning demand.
Between 1917 and 1929, hundreds of young
women were employed applying radiumactivated paint to watches, aircraft controls,
clocks and compass faces in factories in Illinois,
New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island, N.Y.
Painting an average of 250 dials per day and
getting about a penny and a half per dial, the
women at Radium Dial's Ottawa, III., plant
could earn about $18 a week, compared to the
$5 they would likely earn in other factory jobs.
Working with a mixture of glue, water and
radium powder, the dial painters used camel'shair brushes to apply the glowing paint to racks
of dials. For fun, the young women would
sometimes paint their fingernails and teeth
with the glowing mixture and then turn off the
lights. At times, with the factories often tlill of
radium dust, it was reported that the women's
skin and hair sometimes glowed by the time
they left work. One worker noted that when Wristwatches from World War I
she blew her nose, her handkerchief glowed in (top) may still contain dangerthe dark.
ous levels of radium. Former
work, coining the term "radium jaw" in a 1924
article in the Journal of the American Dental
As.<!ociatio?i.
Grace Fryer would later testify against U.S.
Radium in court: "Our instructors told us to
point [our brushes] with our lips. I think I pointed mine with my lips about six times to every
watch dial. It didn't taste fiinny. It didn't have any
taste, and 1 didn't think it was harmful." Fryer
left the dial factory after about three years, in
1920, for a better job as a bank telJer. About two
years later, her teeth started falling out and her
jaw developed a painful abscess. She consulted a
number of dentists and doctors, hut none had
ever seen such serious bone decay. Finally in
1925, one doctor suggested that the problems
might be caused by her years as a dial painter.
Fryer might have remained just another
unknown victim of radiation poisoning if the
National Consumers League and noted newspaperman Walter Lippmann hadn't championed
her cause. Established in 1899, the Consumers
League fought for safe workplaces, reasonable
minimum wages and decent working hours for
women and children.
It was at the request of an Orange city health
department official that the New Jersey branch
of tbe league began investigating the suspicious
deaths of four radium factory workers between
Tracing the tiny numbers on watches and dial painters suffered terrible
1922 and 1924. The deaths had been attributed
compasses required precision brush strokes, ailments, such as disfiguring
to phosphorous poisoning, mouth ulcers and
and the women were encouraged by their cancers (above). As their health
syphilis. The New Jersey Consumers League
supervisors to use their lips to help make a fine deteriorated, many were
chairwoman, Katherine Wiley, brought in statispoint on their brushes. Reassuring them that known as "living dead."
tical experts and Alice Hamilton, a Harvard
the glowing substance in the paint was not
University authority on workers' health issues, to
dangerous, women later quoted their bosses
investigate the mysterious injuries and deaths
telling them, "Not to worry if you swallow any radium, it'll make among former dial painters.
your cheeks rosy." In spite of those assurances to the young
Fryer decided to sue U.S. Radium in 1925, but it took her two
workers, however, factory owners and scientists careRilly avoided years to find an attorney willing to take the case. In May 1927,
overexposure themselves, wearing protective masks and using Fryer and four other former dial painters—Edna Hussman,
lead screens and tongs when handling the radium.
Albina Larice, Quinta McDonald and Katberine Schaub—filed
Over time, the factory workers absorbed substantial amounts suit in the New Jersey State Supreme Court for $250,000 each
of radium into their bodies, and hy the early 1920s, dial painters in compensation for medical expenses and pain. Tbe case quickwere falling ill with mysterious symptoms. Many developed ly grew into a media phenomenon and the press dubbed the five
problems with their teeth, and their jawbones appeared to be dis- young women the "Radium Girls." The crusading journalist
integrating. They frequently suffered from severe anemia and Lippmann wrote a number of stories concerning the Radium
debilitating joint pain as well. Dr. Theodor Blum, a dentist in Girls in the New York World, arguably the most influential newsNew York, was the first to link the painters' symptoms to their paper in the country at the time.
34 AMKRICAN HISTORY OCTOBER 2007
TOP OAK RIDGE ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES.
BOTTOM COUnTESV OF ROSS MULLNER, D£ADI.Y GLOW THE RADIUM DIAL rtORKEfl TRACEDY
C As dial worker after dial worker fell ill, U.S. Radium attempted to
tarnish their reputations by claiming that they suffered from syphilis /
U.S. Radium denied all charges of knowingly poisoning its
dial painters, and launched a campaign of disinformation. In
1925 the corporation hired Frederick Flinn of the Institute of
Public Health at Columbia University to give Fryer a medical
examination. He found her health "as good as my own." It was
later discovered that Flinn was not a licensed medical doctor, but
an industrial toxicologist on contract with U.S. Radium to try to
rcftjte the Harvard health team's report. As dial worker after dial
worker fell ill, U.S. Radium attempted to tarnish the women's
reputations by claiming that they were suffering from syphilis.
However, scientific and medical literature dating back to 1906
contained plenty of information concerning the hazards of
working directly with radiun:i. Even one of U.S. Radium's own
publications contained a section called "Radium Dangers—
Injurious Effects." Despite these warnings, radium was still
widely touted as a scientific miracle with enormous curative
power. Newspapers, magazines, books and lectures heralded the
spectacular cancer-curing properties of radioactive concoctions
such as Radithor, sold over the counter to unsuspecting customers. It was later found that Radithor contained enough radium to kill the thousands who drank it regularly until 1931, when
the Federal Trade Commission issued a cease-and-desist order
against the manufacturer.
Legal maneuvering in the Radium Girls' case delayed the first
hearing until January 1928. By that time it was painfully clear the
five women were seriously ill, and when the defense was granted a
five-month adjournment in April, the public outcry was swift and
fierce. Lippmann decried the action as "one of the most damnable
travesties on justice that has ever come to our attention." Even
Marie Curie commented on the Radium Girls' likely fate: "1 see
no hope for them....My experiments with radium convince me
that if the poison is taken internally, it is practically impossible to
destroy it." (Curie herself would die in 1934 of aplastic pernicious
anemia caused by long-term exposure to radium.)
A trial date was set for June, but just days before it was to
begin, the Radium Girls settled out of court for $10,000 each,
plus coverage of medical expenses and a $600 annuity until death.
McDonald died in 1929 at the age of 34; the 34-year-old Fryer
and Schaub, 30, died in 1933, followed by Hussman in 1939 at
age 37. Larice, the last of the Radium Girls, died in 1946 at 51.
The perseverance of the Radium Girls and their courage to
challenge U.S. Radium even as they were dying set a precedent
in case law for the right of individual workers to sue employers
for damages caused by labor abuse. In the wake of theix legal battle, industrial safety standards were enhanced by the passage of
federal laws that made occupational diseases compensable and
extended the time during which workers could discover illnesses
and make claims. Furthermore, data developed from the experiences of these unfortunate young women was instrumental in
Radium Fallout
R
adium was used to paint dials as late
as the 1950s, and those objects may
still be dangerous and require careful han-
o
DANGER
dling. Radium has since been replaced by
tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that emits
low energy radiation in the form of beta
rays, or electrons.
Safety Light Corporation, the successor
to U.S. Radium, has used tritium gas in the
manufacture of self-luminous safety signs
RADIATION HAZAKO
iww™
under the Isolite trademark since 1982.
Glass tubes are coated internally with
phosphor, filled with tritium gas and hermetically sealed. The gas stimulates the phosphor coating to emit
light. The glow-in-the-dark signs are marketed worldwide as emergency exit signs for use in commercial and industrial buildings.
According to Isolite: "The beta emissions from the tritium gas are
completely contained within the tubes. There is absolutely no risk of
radiation exposure from normal use of our product." The safety of
these signs is not disputed, but they must be disposed of properly,
following hazardous waste procedures.
Although U.S. Radium stopped processing radium at its Orange,
N.J., facility in 1926, during the 1980s, nearby residents discovered
that their homes had high levels of radon, a gas produced by the
decay of radium. Further investigation revealed that sand used as
fill for those homesites contained residue from the old U.S, Radium
facility, In 1983 the Environmental Protection Agency put the 2-acre
plant site on its Superfund National Priorities List, Twenty-three
years later, after the removal of 135,000 tons of contaminated soil
and debris, the EPA declared thai the New Jersey site had been
cleaned up and that concerns about contaminated groundwater in
the area had been "effectively addressed,"
setting new radium tolerance levels for researchers and workers.
Perhaps the fate of the Radium Girls was sealed when they
first started dipping their brushes into that strange glow-in-thedark paint back in 1917, but in their misforUme the American
public would learn an important lesson. The scientific community in the early 1900s promoted radioactivity as safe and harmless, and nonscientists were reluctant to question or criticize. The
Radium Girls challenged the power and claims of a major corporation and, in doing so, not only warned the public of the
deadly eiifects of radium, but also illuminated the danger of
trusting blindly in new discoveries and technologies. •
OCTOBER 2007 AMERICAN HISTORY 37