![]() Picture from Messy NessyĪbout the Contributor: Joseph E. The case of women radium dial painters - women who tipped their brushes while painting the dials of watches and instruments with radioactive paint - has been extensively discussed in the medical and historical literature. Pictured: Grace Fryer painting a radium clock. Read more about the Radium Girls' role in shaping the Labor Laws of the United States: These events have beenĭescribed in both historical works, notably Claudia Clark, Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935 (UNC Press, 1997) and in the play “Radium Girls” by D.W. Radium paint was used in watch dials as late as the 1960s. The US Public Health Service in 1933 to recommend safety practices in this area. These events helped spur early workplace safety guidelines, as the League persuaded The Consumers’ League, a women’s voluntary society committed to improving workingĬonditions for women and children, provided much-need assistance in the litigation. Another case brought by Catherine Donahue finally succeeded after eight In 1928 with each woman receiving $10,000, a $600 yearly annuity for life, and medicalĮxpenses. Still, one case, brought by Graceįryer, Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, Quinta McDonald, and Albina Larice, settled Injuries and not including occupational diseases. They faced great difficultiesĭue to delays and legal rules limiting recoveries against employers to accidental Meanwhile, the workers became increasingly sick. That were influential in the early stages of workplace safety law in the U.S.Įvidence shows that the company knew of the risks to the workers, but concealed them. Told to lick their paintbrushes to give them finer points. Public Domain The first illnesses appeared around 1920, and initially, doctors were baffled. While radium is only faintly radioactive, the women were The women dubbed Radium Girls painted luminous numbers on watches, clocks and instrument dials using radium-laced paint in factories in New Jersey, Illinois and Connecticut. Radium Corporationįactories in Orange, New Jersey and Ottawa, Illinois. Poisoning from brushes they used to paint watch components in U.S. About Radium: The “radium girls” were a group of women workers who contracted often-fatal radiation
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