THE Radium Girls BOOK Report PDF

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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women Book Report about Radium poisoning....

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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women Book Report The Radium Girls by Kate Moore was published on 18th April 2017, which was later awarded as a New York Times bestseller. It is a true story well researched by Kate Moore on the use of Radium as a wonder drug and its health effects on many women at the time. The story is based on the happenings of the First World War in 1917, where fighting soldiers needed Radium painted watches, making them have a high market demand. Radium effects were previously not known as it was a newly discovered element with its uses as a fresh face beauty product and wonder drug among the medical community spread across the nation. In the United States, it was seen as a miracle product with immense benefits to the users or manufacturers of Radium based products. Radium was seen as a moneymaker for companies who used Radium based luminous paint to detail numbers on the faces of the watches. These watches at the time were in high demand, especially for the soldiers fighting in World War 1. The women at the time were eager to get a job at the factories as dial painters, which at the time were seen as a more glorious job than working in other factories, which was termed as normal. These women, once employed, were in a rush to paint as many watches as they could as this ensured they earned more money depending on the number of watches painted. Unlike other places in Europe where various implements such as glass rods were used to paint with Radium American factories solely depended on the use of brushes to paint the watches. The girls were paid depending on the watches on painted, which amounted to about 1.5 cents per watch, which with hard work, enabled them to earn more than their fathers annually. To maintain high speeds, they would use the method of dip, lip, paint, which involved dipping their brushes in their mouths to straighten and dampen the brush bristles. The women

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were not to blame as they had not been sensitized on the various dangers that would occur after putting the brushes with traces of Radium into their mouths. This was normal as even Mae Cubberley, who was a trainer, enquired about the safeness of the practice of putting the brushes in the mouth where she was she was assured of its safety with even them terming it as beneficial to them. The girls working at the factory glowed with the luminous paint even after work with others, also using it as a form of decoration. For example, a lively Italian girl from the Newark and Orange studio painting her teeth as a way of attracting her suitor during the date. In Ottawa, Peggy Looney, who was in charge of the Radium Dial, took home some amount of the Radium home so that she could paint a glow in her dark mustaches together with her siblings. They found it as a fun affair, with some of them even laughing about it. Pierre Curie, who worked in one of the factories, also saying that he wouldn't trust himself with even a kilo of Radium, which shows how uninformed they were on its dangers. During the war, the demand for these watches was high with expansions and establishment of other studios like the one for USRC, which was opened up in Orange, New Jersey. The demand for the watches continued to increase, leading to an increase in demand for painters at the factories. Sarah Maillefer, Amelia, and Albina were one of the people advantaged by the new appointments at Newark. Other women like Grace Fryer, Irene Corby, Mae Cubberley, and Vincent La Porte all left their jobs or even marriages to come and seek employments as painters in these factories. However, jobs began to decrease towards the end of the world war with many losing their jobs while the lucky ones offered the chance to work on a part-time basis at the factories.

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After some years, the women who once worked as dial painters started to become ill out of nowhere. The formerly healthy and youthful women started having similar illness characteristics with teeth falling out, jaws snapping into pieces and bones aching to a point where they were unable to walk or move. The deteriorating health of these young women puzzled many people in the medical profession, with even some dying at a very young age. The root cause of these health concerns was not known with the only similarity between the patients been that they had previously worked as radium dial painters at the factories for some time. The first symptoms started to appear around 1919 to 1921, which emerged in women and girls. Katherine Schaub began to feel some soreness and stiffness in her legs. Marguerite Carlough, on the other hand, had some mild symptoms, such as feeling tired constantly. Hazel Vincent mysteriously became ill experiencing jaw pains, which also losing weight drastically. Mollie, who was Albina Maggia's sister, was the first to die while still working as a dial painter at the factory. She began having toothaches, which led her to seek medical attention in 0ctober 1921 from Dr. Knef due to the agonizing pain she was experiencing. Dr. Knef was puzzled as to what was the root problem with him, wondering if it was an inflammatory disease of the gums with him noting that she became, even more, worse after the treatments. Upon removal of her teeth, the holes became more ulcerous and infectious. Mollie was then tested for Syphilis in 1922, which rendered negative results with Knef considering her case to be an occupational disease, which could be caused by the exposure to Phosphorus poisoning. She later tested positive for Syphilis but later died due to hemorrhage at the age of 24. Two days after her funeral in Ottawa, Illinois, a newspaper published an advert requesting girls who were 18 or over to apply as dial painters in tiny Ottawa nearing Chicago.

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President Joseph Kelly, together with Miss Murray, were the main people tasked with the job of choosing and finding girls for the job. Many orphans and underprivileged girls applied for the role where upon reaching the factory Mercy Reed who was their instructor, swallowed a spatula of Radium to show and assure the girls that Radium was harmless. The harmful effects of Radium to the bones and bodies of the dial painters were finally determined, which led to women in New Jersey, doctors, and other professionals to attempt litigations to help them get compensations from the factories. The girls currently working in Ottawa, Illinois, ignored what other people were saying but continued working at the factory nonetheless. These litigation attempts were unsuccessful as the dial paint factories kept denying with them, stating that Radium was harmless to a person's body. Evidence of Radium poisoning was identified on 21st May 1925, when Martland, who was working alongside Sochocky and USRC, found that the bones of DR. Leman, who was the chief chemist at USRC had reduced to ash which was an occurrence never seen in medical history at the time. They tested the ash with an electrometer, which was found to have significant amounts of radiation. This led to the doctors coming up with ways of testing people who were alive with Sarah Carlough becoming the first person to be ever tested. The test involved someone sitting in front of an electroscope, which was used to read gamma radiation. Another test involved blowing air into a bottle joined to an electroscope, which measured the amount of radon in one’s breath. Despite the news and evidence of these tests been published in the New York Times, the USRC still denied that Leman's death was due to Radium poisoning. In August 1925, Dr. Flinn and other workers whose reports had been misrepresented by USRC published their full reports,

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totally ignoring the fact that they would be sued. This evidence prompted Andrew McBride of the Department of Labor to visit the factor with him disregarding the safety advice given by the Drinkers terming it an impractical. Litigation attempts by women like Hazel Kuser and the Carlough sisters who had worked at USRC became more substantial due to this evidence. Through suggestions from Katherine Wiley of the Consumer League, the women visited Martland, who informed them that their illnesses were caused by radium poisoning they got from their job, which was incurable and would eventually kill them with time. The New Jersey Radium girls did whatever they could with the aim of getting compensation and support from USRC. The lawyers were not willing to take the cases and termed them one-sided due to their statute of limitations, with the only exception been Marguerite. In December 1925, Martland, together with Dr. Knef and Dr. Condor, published a detailed article discussing the new unidentified form of occupational poisoning. Pro Radium figures disregarded the findings terming them as mere propaganda, as according to them, Radium was harmless. At around this time, Martland and Sochocky were interested in two cases of New Jersey girls due to the mesothelium in the USRC form concerning Radium. In 1928, conferences started happening in New Jersey to address Radium poisoning, which had been neglected by USRC, which brewed trouble for the company. Around the same time on 30th March 1932, Eben Byers, who was an industrial playboy who had believed that Radium was beneficial to his health, died of acute radiation poisoning. Before his death, he provided evidence to the Federation Trade

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Commission that Radithor had killed him. The Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of Radium as a form of medicine. Evidence of Radium poisoning in a wealthy consumer made the officials in power accept the possible cause of Radium poisoning for the female workers at USRC, which had earlier been disregarded. This, in turn, led to the collapse of the Radium business in New Jersey, with the Orange Plant been closed off in 1933. This gave women like Grace, and Katherine Schaub lasting justice against the company thought they died a few months later. News of the New Jersey cases became public, with them reaching scrutiny for those working at the Radium Dial in Ottawa. This led to Radium Dial in Ottawa denying the allegations with them claiming their Radium was pure with them even offering to take tests of the girls still working for them to prove that they were still healthy. The tests came back showing that the girls were healthy except for the case of Peg Looney, Inez Corcoran, and Ella Cruse. During this time, the pressure was being rolled out on President Kelly to leave Radium Dial in favor of William Ganley, which led to him opening a similar Radium dial company. Cook, a Chicago lawyer, offered to represent the affected women for free with him forwarding two claims to the Law Court and the Illinois Industrial Commission. However, they lost the case due to the law of limitations in Ottawa. Inez, who was an inclusion in the case, later died on 25th February in 1936 from a neck sarcoma. Leonard Grossman decided to offer his support by representing the women in the trials, which were set to begin in two days but decided on postponing it until to help him come up with sufficient evidence against Radium Dial. Catherine's health had deteriorated at the time, with evidence been gained from her with the help of Dr. Loffler and Dr. Weiner. She continued to give

THE RADIUM GIRLS BOOK REPORT testimonials against the company from her bedside. On 5th April 1938, under the representation of Tom, it was decided that Radium Dial was responsible for Catherine's disability. Radium Dial continued to appeal the decision with the Supreme court, finally ruling that Radium Dial was accountable, and no further appeals would be accepted. Catherine later died on 27th April 1938, having won against Radium Dial on behalf of all the other girls. Hence through the struggles of women like Grace Fryer and Katherine Schaub in New Jersey and others like Catherine from Illinois helped secure the rights of all the other Radium girls with them dying days after they won the trials. This book is well researched by the author, who provides a clear history of the radium girls and radium poisoning while at the same time offering a biography telling the stories of the women behind the names.

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Moore, K. (2017). The radium girls: The dark story of America's shining women. Sourcebooks....