31:100 The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

Radium was the latest craze after Marie Curie discovered it and business was keen to get in on finding as many applications for it as possible but for the most part, it was too expensive for the everyday person but painting dials for fancy watches or aircraft?  That was just the ticket for a couple of the big radium corporations.  And for young girls, some as young as 14, trying to help their families make ends meet it was such a simple job.  Lick, dip, paint the number on the dial.  Lick, dip, paint some more.  If you were one of the lucky girls, you worked at the factory where you were allowed to play with it and see just what kind of a glow you could get when painting it on your teeth, nails, clothes, etc.

Except every time they licked their brushes to get them to the proper point, they were ingesting a little more radium paint..every.single.time..usually for years.

And then they started getting weird health problems. Abscessed teeth but the jaw wouldn't heal when the tooth was removed. Teeth just getting loose and falling out. Limbs shrinking. Tumors.

But the companies refused to admit any wrongdoing, even after reports were coming out that it was the radium.  Most lawyers refused to take their cases.  The laws at that time did not adequately cover radium exposure.  It was a fight of the people vs. big corporations and it was a fight that many did not think they could win.

Some didn't.  Some died before they knew what was happening to them. Some died before they could get a lawyer to accept their case. Some died while trials were going on. But there were many who fought and kept fighting.  Some won their cases and some lost. Some won settlements that were truly helpful and others won only a pittance.  Some were shunned by their communities but they kept fighting. 

And laws were changed.

Not as many as needed. Some of these factories were still operating with similar procedures into the 1970s but things did change although it took many years and many of these shining women did not live to see it.  May we learn from what they went through as big corporations continue to thrive on the backs of their workers whom too many see as disposable commodities, easily replaced.

Many books have chronicled the court cases and looked at the story from a more technical perspective but this one tried to give the girls a voice about who they were, what their hopes and dreams were before this happened to them, and also after when they realized what was happening. It's a little too chipper at times and the voices of the girls tend to blend into one homogenized voice rather than hearing them as individuals but it's well researched and a very accessible read.

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