Do you know who were the radium Girls?
They sound so bright and cheerful!
Which they were at first but then the reality kicked in…
Those were the days when the bright and shining Radium were a fad! The Radium used to shine like a miniature sun! Especially in the night!
They used to light up the darkness while in fact they were spreading it!
So the Radium Girls were female factory workers in the 1910s and 1920s who used to paint watch dials and military instruments with self-luminous paint!
The process used to be called “Lip, Dip, Paint”!
Workers used fine camel-hair brushes to apply glowing radium paint to watch faces. Supervisors told them to shape the brush tips with their lips and tongues (“lip-pointing”), which caused them to ingest radium every day!
They were literally LICKING poison on a daily basis!
The Deception was that the companies claimed the paint was completely harmless!
Meanwhile, company owners, chemists, and managers used lead screens, masks, and tongs to protect themselves from the same material!
The major incidents occurred at facilities in Orange, New Jersey (United States Radium Corporation), Ottawa, Illinois (Radium Dial Company), and Waterbury, Connecticut (Waterbury Clock Company).
After a while the illness started and came like a flood!
Because radium acts like calcium in the human body, it deposited directly into the workers’ skeletons.
Women suffered from severe tooth decay, fragile bones, bone cancer, hemorrhages, and “radium jaw” (where the jawbone literally disintegrated)
Of couse in spite of severe pressure from all over, the brave women fought against the strong corporate and won!
The case has had major impacts on Labor Laws!
Their long, painful legal battles exposed corporate negligence and forced major reforms in labor safety, workers’ rights, and government regulations regarding radioactive substances!
So next time you want to see the time in the dark; well use a light you radium brain!
But all said and done the Radium girls were legendary! Legendary also is the singing of my favourite singer Sonu Nigam!
Now turn off your non radium lights and sleep!
Shub ratri….
