The Radium Girls:

SXMGirl · ‎07-07-2010

America's Darkest Lost Secret In History.

If you get an opportunity, this is an excellent, scary, and maddening account of what happened to many of our young women who worked in the radium factory in NJ during WWI. Saw this on FB and was published through Science 101. This was the first case where the courts held a company responsbile for the health of their employees. Eye-opening.

The next time that I hear salt and ice together, it better be in a margarita!

proudlyfromNJ · ‎05-01-2010

@SXMGirl wrote:
America's Darkest Lost Secret In History.

If you get an opportunity, this is an excellent, scary, and maddening account of what happened to many of our young women who worked in the radium factory in NJ during WWI. Saw this on FB and was published through Science 101. This was the first case where the courts held a company responsbile for the health of their employees. Eye-opening.

@SXMGirl. Yes, I’ve read about this. Horrible

Nightowlz · ‎03-11-2010

I had never heard of them until I saw a documentary on TV about them.

How awful they did not know the harm it would cause. They painted their nails, face etc with it. Can't believe the Chemists did not tell them.

patbz · ‎03-10-2010

I read this book last year and found it very informative. Probably around 1950, as a child I remember my Dad talking about the danger of radium poisoning to "diall painters" ( not only was it dangerous but the common practice of licking the tip of the tiny paint brushes to make perfect numbers didn't help).

tucsongal · ‎03-10-2010

I would also recommend “Code Girls” and The Hello Girls”. The authors of all three books were at our book festival a year or two ago, it was very interesting to hear them.

spiderw · ‎06-14-2010

A friend recommended Radium Girls and I have it on my book list. I know it will most likely anger me as I believe this type of situation happened a heck of a lot and much hidden from the public. So much comes to light after the damage is done and then it becomes a fight to hold those involved accountable and be punished.

akaburtonfan · ‎12-08-2013

I recently read the book The Radium Girls. It was horrifying to read what these girls went through because of corporate greed. By the end of the book I was very angry.

It a well written book and I highly recommend reading it.

DrKelli · ‎03-10-2010

This book was so good. I actually used it for research when I was doing my doctoral dissertation.

sfnative · ‎03-10-2010

Yes, indeed. Also, for those who might wish to take a different look at things, though made decades ago, the movie, "Madame Curie," is a good watch. Though TCM hasn't shown it in a while, it may be on their 'Watch List."

Coming at things from a different angle, the largest of my surgical training facilities, spends about 50% of it's time training ortho Residents and 30% combo of general surgery/anesthesiology Residents, which nearly always requires the use of fluoroscopy or C-arms. Most of the time we used large C-arms, but with ortho upper extremety work, small C-arms were brought in. Though we had lead (aprons) for all to wear, I recall the Head of Hand once saying, half jokingly, that they were all going to die of leukemia. I spoke to him after one particularly brutal 4 hour training in order for him to explain his remark. Seems they just don't don lead all the time. Period. This means they're knowingly exposing themselves to ionizing radiation almost on a daily basis. Well, I had a meeting with my staff to insure that everyone in our spaces dons lead whether they like it or not. And, guess what, some of the docs from ortho did complain! Geez!