#the radium girls

[bethanydelleman]

I had tears pouring down my cheeks while I was driving home this morning because I listened to a podcast about the Radium Girls and how hard they fought to hold their employer to account for poisoning them, even though they knew they would die regardless, because they wanted to protect the workers who came after them. Even though their community called them liars and they were in horrible pain, they fought. And then the host started talking about how the Manhattan Project used knowledge gained from the Radium Girls to protect their workers and how the ghosts of those girls and women protected people going forward...

And it made me think of all the ghosts, unnamed and unknown, who in their death protect us: the ghosts of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the Quebec Bridge, and so many others. Disasters that made us change laws and protect people, not just because they were horrific but because survivors and survivors families demanded that we change; kept screaming and fighting and pushing until someone listened and something was fixed.

What a debt we owe.

[100-great-books]

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[aquakat-draws]

Prompt: Radiation (yep I'm not going on order but WHO CARES it's my list and I do what I want lol)

I just love drawing zubin in those early 20th century clothes and... getting radiation poisoning? Idk but I love it

[orchid-merryweather]

My brain: be normal be normal be normal be normal be normal this person could be your friend don't fuck it up please be normal

Me: so yeah in world war one soldiers couldn't see the faces of normal watches when in the trenches when it got dark so there were watches made with luminous paint so they could see the numbers. The problem was that this luminous paint was made from radium and they were all hand painted, and the painters who were all women because all the men were at war had to use these special brushes when painting that had a superfine tip but to keep the tip pointed they'd have to point the brush with their lips and what that means is that they put the tips of the brushes in their mouths and by doing that they all ended up injesting some of the radium. The radium then got deposited in their bones and made them horribly sick, like their jawbones started disintegrating in their mouths and when that caused them to lose teeth the wounds from the lost teeth never healed properly and then would get infected and they also got tumors and they lost a bunch of weight and became really weak and all kinds of horrible things because of radiation poisoning. At first nobody thought that this could've been from the radium because it was believed to be a kind of magical cure all. And when some people started to suppose that it could be related to the radium many people didn't believe them and those of the women who were still alive and well enough and brave enough to try to earn compensation for their illness faced an extremely hard time. They were viewed as greedy liars and were shunned in their communities for it and when a doctor of the girls said that the condition of radium poisoning was fatal and without any cure the hearing had to be halted because one of the girls just about fainted in the court room. Eventually these girls were lucky enough to win their case and they were compensated for their illness and doctor visits and that some of them had to pay nannies because they were physically unable to care for their kids, some of the girls managed to live happy lives after this despite their condition but one of them died pretty much directly after she was informed that they won the case. Other women that sued their employers for them having gotten radium poisoning were given compensation so little that it was insulting and others didn't even win their cases or settle out of court and they got nothing. This was when workers protection and compensation laws didn't do anything and those of the women and their lawyers that got compensation had to fight tooth and nail to get anything. And many of the women died without ever knowing what was wrong with them and getting misdiagnoses ranging from doctors doing their best with what information they had and diagnosing them with phosphorus poisoning to downright insulting and absolute preposterous diagnosises of syphilis. These women were in some places called ghost girls for the way they literally glowed when they left their jobs because of the radium paint and radium powder they ended up covered in, the nickname "ghost girls" ended up having a different meaning though, because of what the radium poisoning did to their bodies. There are/were also more widely called the radium girls because obviously of their relationship with radium and I read this book about them and

[larosebisou]

"In the cold factory light, we glowed,

Hands smeared with ghostly gleam,

Radium’s kiss, a lover’s deadly touch,

We painted numbers, dreams, and our bones.

Faces pale as winter’s breath,

Lips touched by phantom fire,

We laughed with teeth that shone like stars,

A choir of ticking clocks.

Bodies fed on invisible poison,

Jawbones crumbling, silent screams,

Beauty turned to incessant grief,

Our lives a dance on the edge of night.

Time’s cruel hand moved against us,

Dial by dial, stroke by stroke,

In the dim room, whispers grew,

Of sickness, of sorrow, of inevitable doom.

We were the brides of the shining world,

Unknowing martyrs, silent as snow,

Bearing light that led us to dark,

Our voices echoe, our coffins glow."

— La Rose Bisou

[yuzukareis]

Babe, what's wrong? You've barely licked your radium dipped paintbrush.

[knucklestheenchilada]

Hi it’s me I’m asking abt the radiation girls bc EVERY TIME I see that wristwatch factory post I’m so confused bc I don’t know what to google to get answers pls infodump on me

Beans you have no idea how happy this has made me, cw that I'm adding pictures that may be unsettling to some viewers also this is very long, like reaaaally long

TLWR: The Radium Girls died horrific deaths due to painting watches with radium paint and the corporation responsible tried to cover it up. This tragedy helped to form OSHA

Okay so! The Radium Girls (i wrote radiation in the tag by accident whoops) where factory workers who painted clock hands and instrument dials with radium luminescent paint around 1920. 100 years ago! Neat!

So, this was back when radium and by extension radiation had just been discovered. Back then radiation was thought to be able to cure cancer, it was in make-up, toothpaste, fancy spa water, even butter. Radioactive tonics were being sold as a miracle cure snake oil. It was even called Liquid Sunshine with espresso like effects. And what can radium do my dear Beans? (besides kill you) It can glow.

Radium luminescent paint made clocks readable in the dark, which was a big deal when digital clocks and non-toxic-glow-in-the-dark stickers didn't exist. In WW1 soldiers needed to be able to see their clocks for maneuvers that needed precise timing in the dark/in trenches without being spotted by the opposing side (at the time wrist watches were seen as a lady thing until the war)

One of the factories that made those watches opened in orange NJ in 1916 called the US Radium Corporation (USRC). They hired about 70 women, the recorded youngest 14, to paint watches for the military with the paint. It was actually considered a fancy job, as it paid three times as much as a regular factory job at the time and the women were listed as artists in their town’s directory. They soon were called radium girls and they were 5% of female workers in the US. An estimated 4000 workers were hired by corporations in the US and Canada between 1917 and 1926. Working in one of these factories was a big deal

Radium paint powder is super pretty and after work, the ladies would sprinkle it on themselves and dance in it. They would wear their favorite dresses to work so they could get some of the paint/powder on them so they could glow all the time. Because how cool is the dame that's shining like an emerald in the dancehall when no one else is? The radium dust, since its dust, was in the air itself - so these women were breathing it in constantly, sometimes they would rub it on their teeth as a joke and they would paint their nails with it so they could glow as well. They started getting called ghost girls because when they'd walk home in the dark, they'd be glowing like a ghost. When they would blow their noses the tissue would glow

How do you paint those tiny bits of watches that need to glow? With a very tiny paint brush Beans! The technique they were taught to get these teeny tiny numbers on wristwatches (which sometimes were only 3.5 centimeters wide) was called lip pointing. After painting each number the woman pit the tip of the paintbrush between their lips to make it a fine point. With every digit, the girl swallowed a little bit of radium.

The women started to experiencing side effects of unknowingly feeding themselves radium pretty quickly in the early 20’s, including: chronic exhaustion, tooth and jaw pains, and stillborn births. 22 year old Molly Magia had to quit her job at the radium factory because of the aching pain in her limbs that was so agonizing eventually she was unable to walk. She had been wrongly diagnosed with rheumatism and was prescribed just aspirin at first. Soon, she lost most of her teeth and in their place were agonizing ulcers would grow. The entirety of her lower jaw and the roof of her mouth and even some of the bones her ears were said to be one large abscess. Her entire lower jawbone had become so brittle that her doctor removed it by just lifting it out

Her jawbone was riddled with teeny holes and this is because the body treats radium as calcium substitute but instead of strengthening the bones like calcium, radium kills off the bone tissue. The women weren't yet aware of the culprit, of course, that's because the specialist who had begun to ‘help’ them was Dr. Frederick Flynn of Columbia University

After declaring there was unquestionably nothing wrong with them, he turned out not to be a licensed physician but a toxicologist working for the very radium factory that the women worked for the USRC and the man who was introduced as his colleague was actually a vice president of the Corp. The USRC also paid off local doctors and dentists to tell the women that they were sufferings from syphilis and eventually that was their cause of death, which was shameful to the family

When the girls started dying from their radium poisoning, the first was Maggie on September 12th, 1922. She was 24 (that’s my age). The cause of death was listed as syphilis. 18 year old Grace started to work as a dial painter on April 10th, 1917, just 4 days after the US joined WW1. By the time Maggie died, Grace was having trouble with her jaw and suffering pains in her feet and so were other workers

Their legs broke underneath them (literally), their spines collapsed, and soon more were dying. The USRC denied any responsibility for the deaths for almost two years but when their bottom line was threatened by the shrinking sales due to the rumors that were spreading about the dangers of radium in 1924, they commissioned an expert to look into the rumored link between the dial painting profession and the women's deaths

The independent study confirmed the link between the radium and the women's illnesses but instead of accepting the findings and making the changes that had been suggested, the USRC paid for new studies that published the opposite conclusion. They also lied to the Department of Labor which had begun investigating about the verdict of the original report. In 1925, a doctor named Harrison Martland developed tests that proved once and for all that radium had poisoned the women

Martlin discovered that when radium was used internally essentially honeycombed the woman's bones. In 1925, Grace’s spine was basically crushed and she had to wear a steel back brace. She decided to sue the USRC but she spent two years searching for a lawyer who was willing to help her. She said, ‘It is not for myself I care; I am thinking more of the hundreds of girls to whom this may serve as an example.’

Other women's legs were shortened and they spontaneously fractured, sometimes the moment a woman realized she even had radium poisoning was when she caught sight of herself in a mirror in the middle of the night. The radium had embedded itself in their bones and had caused them to glow from the inside out

By then doctor Martin had also found that the poisoning was fatal as there was no way to remove the radium from their bodies. Grace was finally able to find a lawyer named Raymond Berry who along with Grace and four fellow workers Catherine Schaub, Edna Hussman, Quinta McDonald, and Albina Latrice accepted their case in 1927. They were seeking $250,000 in damages which is about 3.4 million today.

The USRC wanted to delay the trial as much as possible with the hope that all the women in the case would die before the outcome would be reached, so they kept calling these long recesses for months and months

By the time that women finally appeared in court to testify in January of 1928, none of them were able to raise their arms to take the oath #

The case was finally settled in the woman's favor in 1928 and it became a milestone of occupational hazard law and raised the profile of rad poisoning just as Grace had wanted. By 1927, more than fifty women had died as a direct result of radium paint poisoning. Despite denials of any fault by the USRC after the lawsuit they and other factories that dealt with radium laced paint changed the working conditions. They banned the lip pointing and they gave them protection protective clothing to minimize exposure and after these simple changes were instituted (which actually had been suggested and ignored years before by that independent study)

More women rightly sued which the radium companies appealed several times but in 1939, the Supreme Court rejected the last appeal. The survivors received compensation and the death certificates of the women who’s had been put as syphilis were changed to radium poisoning

Maggie's body was disinterred. Her bones were glowing.

The Radium Girls case was one of the first in which an employer was made responsible for the health of the company's employees and it led to regulations that saved lives and ultimately to the establishment of OSHA. Before OSHA was set up, 14,000 people died on the job every year. Today it's just over 4500 (which is still a fucking lot). The women also left a legacy for science that's been termed invaluable as it revealed the dangers of radium, so thankfully people stopped using it

Marie SkłodowskaCurie's notes from the 1890s are still considered too dangerous to handle without protection due to the high levels of radioactivity and are stored in lead line boxes. She died of aplastic anemia in 1934 resulting from long term ionizing radiation exposure

[the radium girls: the dark story of America shining women by Kate Moore was the main source for this post, some name’s may have been spelt slightly wrong and for that Bee (that’s me) is sorry]

[witchyfashion]

A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts Bestseller!

"The glowing ghosts of the radium girls haunt us still." ―NPR Books 

Discover the gripping and inspiring true story of The Radium Girls, a groundbreaking work by acclaimed author Kate Moore. Immerse yourself in this compelling narrative that unravels the extraordinary lives of these fearless women who fought against all odds.

The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive―until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. 

But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come. 

With meticulous research and a keen eye for detail, Kate Moore delves into the lives of these remarkable individuals, capturing their resilience, strength, and unwavering determination. Through their stories, she exposes the shocking negligence and corporate cover-ups that plagued the radium industry, ultimately sparking a revolution in workplace safety.

The Radium Girls is a masterful blend of historical account and heartfelt tribute. Moore's vivid prose brings these forgotten heroines back to life, ensuring that their sacrifices and triumphs are forever etched in our collective memory. As you turn each page, you'll be captivated by their indelible legacy and inspired by their enduring spirit.

The Radium Girls is a must-read for history enthusiasts, feminists, and anyone seeking a remarkable story of resilience and empowerment.

https://amzn.to/3xBxPkU

[105nt]

If you like a book that leaves you weeping and shaking and seething internally then you'll love this. 😭

[demonic-mnemonic]

Read a few chapters of The Radium Girls before falling asleep... In completely unrelated news, I dreamed about trying to beat an executive to death with my bare fists

[inkandarsenic]

there is a special place in hell for all of the corporate radium executives, and especially for Joseph Kelly

[starlightshadowsworld]

Don't read the Radium girls by Kate Moore if you have anger issues.

And even if you don't, it will give you them.

Just how many people hid the truth behind Radium and it costing these girls everything.

Makes me want to both cry and punch a wall.

[nat-reviews-books]

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

Having never heard of the radium girls, or their impact on American occupational health and safety, this book was horrifying, fascinating, and had me wanting a happy ending for the women involved. I was amazed at the beginning with how radium was treated, knowing what we know now about the effects it can have upon the human body. It's thanks to these brave women that we have so many of the safety measures we have now both in the workplace as well as regarding radiation in general. This book told the human side of finding out how radium affects the human body, and it was tragic to listen to how it ruined the women's smiles, their bodies, and the lives many of them had planned. I highly recommend this to anyone interested, as it's a great book that reminds us that these women were people, who had hopes and dreams, and many of them were crushed by working what was seen as a great job.

Recommend this for: history nerds, people interested in science, people who like documentaries on Three Mile Island/Chernobyl/Fukishima, and anyone who is interested in reading it.

Triggers: dental issues (this is a phobia of mine, so some of the parts were really difficult to listen to), death, cancer, bad bosses, radiation.

[aquakat-draws]

Yes,you may infodump about ross' design :]

I have the same urge to do that no?

Alright, i hope you have the patience to read because its soooo long.

So the first time I wanted to design ross I came up with a chicken monster type of thing, which immediately got dumped because it was H I D E O U S and not what I wanted. So I went and searched on pinterest in hopes of finding something. His design was like the most fucking hard and time consuming one. But eventually I came up with some good references and designed something I'll call the alpha design, which was posted.

His anatomy does not make any sense at all because I wanted to convey how much he was messed up in the experiments. But then over time I found out ways to make him look even more messed up, which he got his beta design, that was also posted

But then comes the third design, which he doesn't change a lot. He lost the tail, lost the magic powers, the bloody phase, but he was allowed to keep his tentacles :D

At first I wanted to give him the ability to like. Use his whole body as a mouth (yknow like grow giant mouths from everywhere) but that idea got dumped because again, he looked so monstrous and fucked up, which wasn't something I was going for. Then I went to be able to climb the wall and ceiling like a gecko, and it also got dumped because he was starting to look like a gecko, while i wanted him to not resemble a specific animal too much. I was stuck on the powers, until I discovered:

Radium!!!!

I realized I had completely forgotten about radiation stuff (mostly because I wanted to avoid mutation clichés)

But let me tell you, it goes just like that persian idiom where we say "without thinking, there's suffering". I knew a minority about radium from my web surfing phase, so I decided to dive into it, discovering the stuff about radium girls etc, the compounds that radium makes, and basically radiology itself

So, Ross's abilities are very much inspired by this beautiful but deadly element. Take his radium nitride healing, for example

At first I wanted him to radiate radium, but then it was dumped (because obviously I don't want him to be lethal to others, and especially give them a painful death with radium poisoning). So instead, certain parts of his body (e.g: tears, eyes, spikes, tentacles, fingertips, toes, etc) can give people some good ol' chemical burns. He can sabotage some devices just by being scared (he radiates a little more dose of radiation when he's panicked). And he doesn't practically glow in the dark from everywhere like pure radium, as we know radium immediately reacts with nitrogen in air and air is like made of 78 fucking percent nitrogen, only his eyes and insides (and by extension, through the mouth) can glow because they have less exposure to air

But remember that he isn't purely based on radium since we definitely know being in the same room with just like a milligram of it can literally kill us. I simply took inspiration and twisted reality because I can and want >:)

But he's still squishy and huggable as always, and his hair is still fluffy and rufflable (even though not even myself as the creator can't distinguish it) :D

Boiii this was long have fun reading it TwT

(Don't know where to add this but he can't switch to his human form before he gains magic)

[jewellerbynight]

My essay has a word limit of 800 and I forgot to pay attention to the word count so when I submitted the rough draft for approval I didn't realise that it was over 1,600 words. I've straight up spent more time trimming it down to 800 than I did researching the topic and writing it. The radium girls were my special interest like six years ago, and now I'm not allowed to go over two pages of writing? Boo