Book Review: The Radium Girls

At one time, I pursued a graduate level history degree. Although I focused on British history, this American tale is the very kind of story I dreamed of chasing down. Kate Moore, author of The Radium Girls, does an outstanding job of integrating material from diaries, letters, court transcripts, and modern oral history interviews (another focus of mine). Plus, it takes place in a familiar neck of the woods (Ottawa, Illinois) and even mentions one of our favorite family destinations (Starved Rock). As the back cover proclaims, "It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar."

On the battlefields of World War I, the soldiers' watches, clocks, and military dials needed illumination. The girls back home, eager to do their part, worked in factories, painting these instruments with a luminous paint made from radium. When their brushes thickened with the material, the bosses instructed them to place the paint brush into their mouths to thin it out again. Thus, most of their days followed a routine of "lip, dip, paint." It was fun. The girls went home from work covered in the glowing dust. Sometimes they even painted their fingernails with the paint. On dark streets, they shone on their walk home. Their employers assured the girls it was safe. Indeed, it would give them rosy cheeks.

The level of corruption displayed by these companies, eager to continue raking in their profits, was sickening. They knew the dangers and refused to inform the girls. Despite medical mysteries (disintegrating jaws, diminishing leg bones, anemia, and various sarcomas), the companies hid their inside knowledge and refused to make payments to assist the afflicted women. If only I could rest in the thought that this was a tragic tale from the past. Alas, this story plays out repeatedly. Profits trump people. The bottom line is more important than integrity and easing illness. Companies today do the same thing: they push unproven substances on unwitting individuals while exempting themselves from liability. When the consequences show up, they refuse to foot the bill. Maddening! Criminal!