The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

"This was radium, the wonder drug, they were using. They were lucky, they thought, as they laughed among themselves and bent their heads to their intricate work. Grace and Irene. Mollie and Ella. Albina and Edna. Hazel and Katherine and Mae. They picked up their brushes and they twirled them over and over, just as they had been taught. Lip… Dip… Paint."

Radium. Many of us today hear the word of this element and a shiver of fear runs down our spines. In a society where nearly every substance is heavily regulated it is near impossible to believe that the story contained within the pages of this book once occurred. Yet they are all so very true.

The Radium Girls is a book documenting the occurrences of radium poisoning in women who were employed at either the United States Radium Corporation or the Radium Dial Company starting around 1922 and continuing until about 1930. These women worked as dial painters and were paid to trace the numbers on watches with radium infused paint so that numbers would be visible in the dark. How did they get the tips of the brushes so fine? By sticking the brushes in their mouths. Lip... dip... paint. You can probably see where this is going.

The Radium was never once thought of as harmful. The women would often play in it, draw silly mustaches on themselves with it, and one woman even elected to paint the walls of her home with it. They were known as the glowing girls as they were seen walking the streets at night covered in the remnants of the radium infused dust. It wasn't until many of the workers started to have unbearable jaw pain, tooth loss, and puss filled lesions that stumped even the most practiced dentists that anyone began to question whether the "wonder drug" was really safe at all.

Many of them lost pieces of their jaws (described as appearing to be eaten by moths), a few had issues with their limbs (I'll spare you photos), but ALL of them slowly died.

This book chronicles their stories in a way that is captivating and also very disturbing. Those in power should never exploit their employees for financial gain and The Radium Girls seeks to document the legal battles that arose from this fatal misinformation.

Seriously give this one a read! You won't forget it.