Episode Revisit: The Radium Girls

And this is more of a band.

[music playing] This is more of a band. I don't even know why I sang it.

“It just started happening, and I went with it.”

Ah, she's scunty. Yeah. [laughs] I believe the words you're looking for is scunty, scunty, scunty.

It's garrry, and context. But me and Mikey have determinants that she shall remain as such, today. Oh, she opened my door. That was my diaper opening.

Because that's a scunty behavior. She is in a place of scunty right now. Serving scunty scunty scunty scunty. Really? I don't know.

Serving scunty. We did magic this morning, and I-- [laughs] We did. Why are you laughing?

That's the truth. [laughs] What? She's just like, I don't know. We just did magic this morning, so--

Oh, you're finished. Serving scunty scunty scunty scunty scunty scunty. We did magic this morning, and we did manifestations. And I manifested myself love and light and abundance. And I'm feeling all of those things.

She's feeling abundant. I think-- because mine went crazy. I did go crazy. And I think it just reignited my scunty soul. It said, baby, party on, play on.

I think it's supposed-- Is it astrologically? There's some bullshit happening. Tyrons in retrograde. Exactly.

I don't know if it's Tyron or Tyron. So come at me, bro. Is that good or is that bad? I think that's pretty bad. Oh, okay.

Hold on. Makes sense. Let me do a little Google. But do a little Google. I need to get it under wraps.

Do a little Googley. Yeah, just went into retrograde. Oh, lots of how you would. It means for you and your astrological sign. Not all of you, too.

But Capricorn's a Germanized. Yeah, let's go.

“Except the cookies, because that's the only thing”

you're allowed to do in life.

I always accept cookies in reality.

Yeah, obviously. So consider it an asteroid in a comet. Try around Tyron begins. It's annual retrograde on July 26. It will take place as Tyron Tyron

is positioned in the first zodiac sign of Aries where it has been since 2010, and it's going to last until the day after your birthday, Lena. Oh, day after your birthday. I do your birthday, Lena.

So for me, Tyron Tyron retrograde holds a mirror to the medicine within you. Medicine for yourself, which when claimed becomes medicine for all. Like Tyron Tyron's mythological journey, retrograde is an invitation to step into the role of healer and observe how your experiences

and the goal do have gleamed from them. Are you offering to the world? I don't know if it resonates, but whatever. Oh, you gymnast. The Germanized.

Now Capricorn, Tyron Tyron is a doorway between the spiritual and the human. And for the last six years, Tyron Tyron, six years, we've been doing the podcast for six years. Whoa, hopefully that's--

I haven't read ahead, so I don't know. Has been cracking open the foundations of who you are,

“so that you can remember yourself as the doorway.”

This retrograde invites you deep within traveling, with you down into your roots, formative years and earlier memories. There is medicine here waiting for you. And I'm the medicine. Oh, my goodness.

Take a dough-spitsch. This spoon, full of sugar. Also just to say who I was not eating that from. Oh, that would be hard. Oh, that would be hard.

Oh, that would be hard. I'm the medicine. Take a dough-spitsch. There it is. You found your housewives.

Let's go ahead. Just to give credit where credit is due. That was from the yoga journal. Thanks yoga journal. You're welcome.

So all you Capricorns in German eyes out there. Now you know that one of you is the medicine and the other one needs it. So we want to be a beautiful, outside glance at our relationship. I love that. Sometimes you're the medicine, though.

I hope so. Sometimes.

I don't always need the medicine.

You don't always need me. No, I'm asking. Like, I'm like, oh, okay, good. I'm not the one that always needs the medicine. No, that's good.

Sometimes. Sometimes. No, a lot of the time. All I need the medicine. Well, speaking of medicine.

And taking of scientific advancements in medicine. We're going to talk about the radium girls today. The radium girls. Yes. So that is a seed did you see that segue.

We're talking about medicine and science and chemical elements. Yeah, it's there. But we're going to talk about the radium girls today.

This is a little different. It's a different true cryomy. My tummy's growing. I don't know if anyone heard that. It's just adjusting the eggplant.

It is. I had an argument. But this is a little different case. Because it's not like, is it like dark history? So yeah, it's definitely, you know, most people would say a crime has occurred here.

You tell me a couple of things. Yeah, it sounds like it. But a different kind. So let's get into it, shall we?

So we're going to start off first by kind of giving a brief, you know, look into what

radium is because without understanding radium, this isn't going to hit as hard. I mean, it's going to hit.

“But you're going to be like, what the fuck is that?”

Yeah. So in 1898, after spending years researching the radioactive nature of mineral pitch blend of which uranium is a major element. Okay. Polish-French scientist, you might have heard of her, Marie Curie.

Marie Curie. Madame Curie. I thought that sounded familiar. And a hobby, Pierre. Pierre, Pierre.

They concluded that the pitch blend contained at least two other previously undiscovered chemical elements. One of these elements was radium. Now, a lot of elements on the periodic table are freely occurring elements.

Yes, radium is not one of those.

A freely occurring element is an element that is not combined with or chemically bonded with other chemical elements. Okay. But radium instead is a byproduct produced in the decay of uranium, another radioactive element. Okay.

That's interesting. Yeah.

“So radium requires a very long process of isolation in order to be extracted.”

In fact, with the help of her laboratory assistant, Andre, I hope I say this right. Debian. Debian. Debian. Madame Curie required several tons of pitch blend before she was able to extract just

one tenth of a gram of radium. Whoa. So it was incredibly rare. So Curie's discovery of radium was notable for many reasons.

One of the biggest was that it proved that there were other elements in nature that were

not even discovered yet. Yeah. That's so cool. Cool. We didn't even know about it.

How cool that a woman found it. She's about us. Totally. Also, the discovery of radium served as the foundation of Curie's work in physics, which later she would get awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry for.

Wow. And in the years that followed, she spent the majority of her career focused on isolating pure metallic radium, which she achieved in 1910. That must have been a little bit scary for her. Oh, yeah.

She's a badass. Yeah. She did all kinds of shit. The girls have like one of those little like who was books on Marie Curie. And they also have like, I just like a standalone book about Marie Curie actually.

So Marie Curie correctly theorized that among its potential uses, this new element she

“found could have important and honestly revolutionary applications in medicine.”

Oh, like my segue. But the fact to remain that it was really difficult and super costly to isolate and extract. It's not like this was easy to do. Right. It was also true that although not as well established or understood, radium was seriously

hazardous and very difficult to handle. For instance, in 1901, this is crazy. In 1901, the Curies gave a fellow scientist a tiny little amount of radium to present at a conference in Paris. And before leaving for France, this man talked to, it was in a little vile.

Yeah. Like a glass vile. So he tucked that vile into an interior pocket of his jacket, and then a vile exploded. It sealed. Did not open up.

But the next time he undressed, he noticed a red mark on his stomach that appeared to be worsening in the hours and days that followed. Oh, no. And according to author Kate Moore, she said, quote, it didn't get bigger, but it seemed somehow to get deeper as though his body was still exposed to the source of the wound.

And the flame was burning him still. Oh, my God. So what that scientist didn't know at the time was that he was experiencing a radiation burn from the tiny amount of radium in the vile that he and the Curies believe was totally safely stored in there.

Wow. In fact, one of the other challenges of radium was that it has a relatively short shelf life and begins to break down really quickly, which is no bueno. Yeah. Because it releases alpha, beta, and gamma radiation in the process, which is very damaging

to living systems and tissue and unchecked amounts. Okay. So while the glass vile itself might have been safely tucked away in his jacket, the element inside that vile was blasting out radiation waves directly into his skin. Oh, my God.

And probably like anybody that was even near him. Yeah.

Yeah.

“In this and other cases of minor exposure, and that's minor exposure.”

The injury appears like a worsening burn, like it keeps getting worse.

But the body will heal itself on its own, eventually when it's separated from the source. But in more severe cases, or in cases of repeated exposure to this radiation, you can be disfigured or you can die. Because as we'll see in the, in this case of the radium girls, if it gets inside of you, it just keeps pumping the radiation.

Yeah. It's like it keeps getting lit and lit and lit, like it doesn't heal. It won't allow your body to heal itself. Oh, that's right. So like minor wounds won't heal themselves.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. If you ingest this radium and you scratched your arm, it wouldn't heal. You'd have an open wound forever. And that would be it.

What the fuck? So despite the dangerous and costly risks associated with handling and extracting radium, it did seem like a huge thing of value for a lot of different avenues, like if we, if they could get an under control, particularly in manufacturing. And it's process of decay, the particles inside of it charge one of its phosphorus components,

zinc sulfide. And this causes what a lot of people know about radium, a green glow. Okay. Phosphorescence kind of glow. Yeah, because the glow is a natural part of the process of decay of radium, it didn't

need an external source of power to make that happen, which is like a really ideal source of light for certain circumstances and environments. That being said, this luminous and glow is pretty minimal and it continued to break down over time. So it was limited with how it could be used.

But throughout the first decade of the 20th century, several extraction plans were established

across the U.S. to like harness the power of radium. Wow. Because there was like, what is this? Like, what can we do with this? It's not like what we do with this.

Cool. Right. It glows. Like we got to. This out.

This is what we call. Now among those enthusiastic about the potential of radium was Dr. Sabin.

“I think it's Sabin Arnold von Sashaki, who was a chemical scientist who in 1915 developed”

luminescent paint. The paint seemed to be an ideal use for radium, since it really didn't require much radium to produce.

And it could be used to paint clock and watch faces, instrument panels, and other objects

that really required minimal light to be seen in the dark, but it could make certain things glow. So you could like, especially the clock faces, like, if you've seen it from like the 50s and stuff like a clock with like that green glow, that's that. Okay.

So that same year, Sashaki partnered with Dr. George Willis to establish the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation, which it was aimed at radium extraction in the production of luminescent paint. The next year, the company was renamed the United States Radium Corporation. And the scope of the mission was narrowed to the production and application of the luminescent

paint. And factories were then opened in Newark and Orange, New Jersey. So all of a sudden, radium has become a thing. Now in the winter of 1917, a young girl named Katherine Shobb was like, many of the girls who would come to work at US Radium.

She was intelligent, she was very enthusiastic, and she was driven to achieve great things in her life. Nice. And just 14 years old. She decided to act on a tip about jobs in the paint application department of US Radium.

So she quit her job at the department's store she was working at, walked into the plant manager's office, and convinced that man to hire her. Hell yeah, girl. Which is like, what about that? At 14 years old, absolutely.

Yeah.

“Throughout much of the 20th century factories and manufacturing jobs were, honestly, among”

the most reliable sources of employment for working class Americans of all ages. Really, particularly those with poor education or limited specialty skills. Sure. Well, the work tended to be like tedious, kind of meanial, dangerous, so the jobs were not very coveted.

They were just things like everybody can do this. The painting jobs at US Radium, on the other hand, seemed to offer something a little more exciting than the typical factory assembly line job. So what Katherine had said was the work was interesting. And of a far higher type than the usual factory job.

Some factory floors, which were like dirty, loud, dangerous, just like, you know, where you want to be. The application rooms at US Radium were referred to as a studio. Whoa. Where to school?

Yeah. They really knew how to market these jobs. And this was where talented young women with a steady hand in creativity. They worked with an exciting new product called Luminous Entpaint. And at a time when it was being touted as, quote, a wonder element, Radium, and selling

Yeah. The opportunity to work with Radium was very thrilling, absolutely, very exciting, very like,

oh my goodness, glamorous, you know, especially those who would never have access to it

otherwise.

“And honestly, they got like, I think they got something like three times the amount they”

would get in a normal factory, like very well-paid. It was just like, note, and I think they hired a certain, they wanted a certain look for these factory rights. So they really wanted to like, the whole vibe of this whole thing. This is so interesting, very interesting.

The job was simple enough at its core. Okay. The pre-printed paper clock watch and instrument dials came in, and they came in in like a large stack. And each girl would work as quickly as they could to apply the Luminous Entpaint to the

letters and numbers on the dial, giving them that glow. Yeah. That we know. But for girls like Catherine Shobb, the girl was so much more than just, you know, tracing lines on a paper as fast as she could.

In addition to applying the paint, each dial painter was responsible for mixing her own paint, which meant adding a small amount of the Radium powder to water and gum adhesive to create the glowing paint. That was marketed as undark. Okay.

We came up with that, because they're like, it glows so it's not dark, which means you're making it undark, like, okay. As they work, though, the Radium powder got everywhere. It covered the studio and it covered the painters in a fine coating of what they thought was this fancy fucking powder.

Oh, God. That's rare. It's this wonder element and I'm covered in it. You know, like, and it's just like, and it's not dirty, it makes you glow. Yeah.

Like, it's, it's got aluminum essence to it. You almost look like you're sparkling. It's like, like, what we would use, like, highlighter for now. Exactly. It's got that, like, vibe to it.

“So I think it had this whole mystique that they were definitely feeding into.”

Mm-hmm. Now, the work of a dial painter wasn't just a matter of chemistry and honestly speed, because they wanted them to do it as fast as they could. And also required a little bit of skill and a lot of creativity. Because the products created by U.S. Radium from wrist watches, instrument panels,

clearly, you know, clocks for the wall, they were really small. These little elements that they had to paint. And often they had these, like, tiny little details, but these tiny details were really

critical to their operation and if they were going to be used or not.

Like, for example, the smallest pocket watches that they produced measured just three and a half centimeters across the face. Wow. And then, like, so the tiny, tiny, little, like, millimeter things they had to paint. Yeah.

They couldn't just, like, swipe it over it, they had to, like, trace the thing. So to ensure accuracy, dial painters worked with really tiny brushes. They were, like, camel hair brushes. And they had to be capable of doing the finest details. So one painter said, I had never seen a brush as fine as that.

I would say it possibly had about 30 hairs in it. It was exceptionally fine. Wow. As the consequences of an error could be very costly to the company, you know, accuracy

“and consistency in these little tiny details was very, very, very, very important.”

The brushes were delicate and slim for sure as we hear, but the bristles would, like, spread out after a while, like, any brush. Yeah. They just get worn, especially when you're working quickly. I'm sure.

Exactly. Because you're really doing this as fast as you can. That was going to make mistakes happen. So what Shob said was, we put the brushes in our mouths because that was a technique they had made up called lip pointing.

And it was passed down from the earliest dial painters who wore themselves hired away from their previous jobs as painters of China dolls. Wow. Wow. They could do those fine details.

Lip pointing was when the painter would wet the bristles of the brush with their lips or their tongue. Oh, God. Pressing those bristles together to make that fine tip. Like we would with a regular brush, you know, like you just to get it really thin, not covered

in radium. No. The girls totally unbeknownst to them, while lip pointing was the standard practice in the U.S., it was not that way in Europe. In fact, European manufacturers had completely abandoned brushes altogether because they ended

up using, like, implements that would hold that fine point so they wouldn't have to do that. Okay.

Sharpen sticks, even like metal needles, always more advanced.

And it didn't ever cross the girls mind that putting the brush covered in radioactive material in their mouths could be dangerous because while the dial workers were hard at work in the factory, wealthy and elite people all over the nation, we're saying how radium is the greatest

Miracle cures were being made with it, like, it was being touted as, like, the fucking cure all, like, this is going to be the thing that changes everything.

“So why the fuck wouldn't you think it's in toothpaste?”

Oh, why can't it be in my mouth? Even though it had literally, like, in a contained small-vile, like, burned that man. Yeah. That they just didn't release that information, or a lot of this is, shhh. Why?

Yeah. One product actually marketed to men at this time was a tonic that they said restored vitality to the elderly, making old men young. I don't know about that, baby. So if you can drink it as a tonic.

Oh my god.

Of course, you can quickly put a fucking brush that's been dipped in it on your lips for a second.

Why wouldn't you? And from the thing is, they were being told by the people who own these corporations and factories, it is completely safe. Right. Getting your mouth.

It's fine. Put it on your, like, whatever you, like, this radium isn't going to hurt you. Oh, God. They were told, it's beautiful. Look at it.

Yeah, look at clothes. You're sparkly. So they were like, okay. Why wouldn't they believe that? Yeah.

No, totally.

“So from the moment the curies isolated and extracted radium from uranium, it was apparent”

the element was dangerous and destructive.

Yeah. Like you just mentioned. It burned a guy's stomach just being in a glass file and his pocket. Well, the problem it seems was a matter of communication, more than the actual knowledge that everyone had.

So Georgetown radiation expert Timothy Jorgensen said, people knew that radio activity released energy and they didn't see how adding some energy to their bodies could possibly be harmful. Okay. They just weren't.

Yeah. It's science wasn't that advanced. And they just weren't told. That, like, this isn't the kind of energy you want to be adding to your body. Right.

Like, there's good energy in that energy. Yeah.

In fact, despite the price of products containing radium enthusiasm for the product seemed

to be never ending. I mean, it had like a boundless potential to be everything. For example, advertisements for Radithor, a health tonic sold the elixir as a cure for the living dead and perpetual sunshine. And it promised to cure everything from arthritis to gout.

Wow. Yeah. The thing and the public's understanding or probably better labels and Dave said this, which is very true, a public misunderstanding. Yeah.

It was a catastrophic misunderstanding by the public, because of the people on top. Right. Right. Because people on top were causing this misunderstanding, so you just wanted to catch this. Go.

Yeah. Exactly. The public's misunderstanding of Radium seems probably like we're looking at this today until we got 20, 24 goggles being like, oh my God. Don't look why are you not understanding that radioactivity is bad.

But in the early part of the 20th century, when most people's education stopped after grammar school, scientific knowledge was pretty limited, like you said. And as is often the case today, people just keyed in on buzzwords and associated scientific discovery with human progress. And of course, it's going to be unquestionably positive, right?

Like, we're all progressing. Yeah. We're evolving. This is great. Technology.

And as a result, the public honestly rarely questioned, and we've seen this in a few cases, they rarely questioned whether products containing radium was safe. And they've done that throughout history. That's true. I mean, like arsenic eaters.

Like, there's all kinds of times when they're just being led to believe that this is fine by all these companies pushing these products on people. And it's easy to go along with the flow and think that you're being told the truth.

“When, and not questioning, that's why it's important to question, especially because something”

has a seemingly desirable outcome. Exactly. That's exactly it. Now, quite the opposite, in fact, they developed a rabid enthusiasm for the fat of consuming radium-based products whenever possible, so it really went the other way.

And in the radium-dial factories where the dial painters were in literal constant contact with the powder and paint, enthusiasm for radium was at an all-time high. In fact, some of the girls actually liked consuming the small amounts of paint because they liked the way it tasted. Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah. Apparently it tasted good. It's like Pica. Yeah, exactly. Now, the problem, of course, was that radium was literally anything that's safe.

It was everything unsafe. Quite the opposite. And although it did have promising applications in medicine, because we are able to harness

But by itself, no, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't as a tonic or other health-fat.

“But they wasn't being safe in those uses.”

Medicine? You sure. Yeah. You're going to figure out a way to make that safe. Tonics, health-fads, fucking, all that shit, like toothpaste and shit, no.

We're not getting it right there. And by the time World War I was in full swing, the radium plants and their dial painters were working overtime to meet growing demand for these clocks, watches, all this stuff. Yet at the same time that these young women were inhaling and consuming small amounts of radium, Marie Curie and her husband were beginning to understand the destructive power

of the element that they discovered. Oh, man.

And it was true that radium had the ability, which is, I mean, incredible.

“It has the ability to destroy tumors and other cancerous growths.”

That's where we get radiation, like, that's, of course, we look at it today and we say, like, where would we be? Right. You know? But the more they worked with it, the more they began to recognize that it's power

to do that was indiscriminate. It was just as likely to destroy healthy cells as it was to destroy unhealthy. So it's like, this is not what we're looking for. We just need to harness it the correct way and we have not. And it's like, now the whole world is just like eating this shit up.

So it wasn't just the Curie's who knew it either. The founder of U.S. radium, Dr. Sabin Arnold Von Sashaki, had also become very, very familiar with the destructive power of radium. Yeah, according to author Kate Moore, who we won't cite the sources in the notes, of course. Early in the company's history, radium had actually gotten into Von Sashaki's left index

finger. And she said, quote, when he realized, he hacked the tip of it off, saying, it now looked as though an animal had broke, had not it. What? Because according to Timothy Jorgensen, radium behaves very much like calcium.

Because the body is accustomed to using calcium to build bone, it will recognize radium as a kind of calcium. And so it will absorb the radioactive material into your bone. And then it will just begin to decay your bone. What the fuck?

Because it mistakes it for calcium, so it just takes it to regenerate. Things it needs to like push it out to the rest of your body to re-absorb calcium.

“And that's why it just destroys, because it just gets pumped out.”

That's horrifying. But it's also fast. So fascinating. Exactly. That your body can't tell the difference.

Is it not what? Is the body so, yeah, like the body so smart obviously, and like, they're miraculous things that the body does. But then to think anything is so dangerous into your system and to just be like, oh, Yeah, like, funny. No, but he knows, but this is all to say, within at least a few years of

founding his company, US Radium, Vonser-Shocky, new Radium-based paint was highly toxic and extraordinarily dangerous. You just got so Boston. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. Extraordinary, dangerous. But he kept that little bit of knowledge from his employees. Oh, good. Which is something to paint. Fucked up to say the very, very lease. Yeah. In fact, as soon as most painters were introduced to the lip-pointing technique,

most inquired as to whether the paint was, you know, in any way harmful. But it was everybody's first impression. They're like, cool that I do this or not. Yeah. Because that's the thing, like, it's not like these girls walked in there and were just like, chemical? Sure. I'll just eat it. Like, they they asked the people in charge. The people who should be telling them whether these things are dangerous. Right. And these people, all their managers would say, no for it. It's completely

safe. And knowing how bad it was. Now, then a few years, many dial painters in the New Jersey factories had actually become like local celebrities. Like, this was a glamorous, wow. That's so crazy. Isn't that wild? Yes. Because unlike traditional factory workers, like I was saying before, they had kind of a vibe. They were going to look. They were young, attractive. And those that earned a decent wage were often happy to spend at least some of that money to, you know, look good.

They were the latest fashion. So they were, they were always like, that is these glamazons that

just like work in this, this studio painting with luminous and paint. And they always come out cover, you know, like it was like this whole vibe. And above all else, it was the radium itself that

Yeah. Because during their hour spent in the studio, like we said before, it was impossible

“to not get radium dust all over you and your hair on your clothes. So when they would leave work”

for the day, they had an unmistakable neon glow stop. So they would walk out of there as the sun's going down and they're glowing. Literally. Yeah. And a painter Edna Bull said, when I would go home at night, my clothes that clothing would shine in the dark. You could see where I was. My hair, my face, the girl's shown like the watches did in the dark room. Wow. So like you just watch this like line of beautiful young girls glowing. Come out glowing. physically, legitimately, in every sense of the

word glowing. Like that must have been like, of course you want to just like idolize this situation. It just must seem so like otherworldly. It does. Yeah. It absolutely does. Like a theory.

Yeah. Like some of the young women in girls would wear clothing to work that they wanted to

wear to the dance later, like on Fridays. And they would do that. So they would get the radium glow on that dress that they wanted to wear. And then later at the dance, they would be

“fucking glowing on the dance floor. Everybody's like, everybody's like, everybody's like, they're”

that radium girl. And it's like, they, this was awesome. It was like a miss. But not everyone was as enthusiastic about the job or the effects of working with the paint. Okay. According to more, some found the paint made them sick. One woman even got sores on her mouth after just a month of working there. And within a few years, even those who love their jobs like Catherine Shobb, they started to notice that there were certain reactions that they were having trouble explaining.

After just a year in the studio, Catherine started getting really bad acne and went to go see a doctor.

And at first, the doctor was like, oh, you know, puberty, you're 15. So the doctor was like,

you know, you're 15 years old. It's probably puberty. Yeah. But then he ran some simple blood tests just to make sure everything was on the up and up. And he noticed some pretty unusual changes that he'd seen in other factory workers. And he said there were ones that had been exposed to high levels of phosphorus. Okay. And as far as Catherine knew, she didn't work with or even near any phosphorus. So the anomalies in the blood were just kind of like, this is perplexing.

Yeah. That's weird. That's suspicious. Neither Catherine nor any of the other girls knew it. But they were working in very close proximity to phosphorus. And it was beginning to affect them physically. Okay. This was part of the whole thing. Right. The symptoms, but they weren't told that. The symptoms of radiation poisoning were alarming to Catherine and her co-workers, but their minds were then set at ease. Because Dr. Vunge, the shockiest partner,

Dr. George Willis told them, there was nothing to worry about. Don't worry about it. Has nothing to do with the shut-up stuff going to the doctor. Look over here, shut up. As more points it out, when one of the greatest radium authorities tells you that you have no need to worry quite simply. You don't worry. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, Willis's reassurances were so comforting that the girls even began to laugh off the increasing frequency of weird occurrences.

Like they were just kind of like, whoa, this is so weird. Like, can't have anything to do with this. Oh, gone. Including painter Grace Fryer, who recalled, quote, "nasal discharges on my

“handkerchief used to be luminous in the dark." What? Yeah. So how bugas were shining?”

Oh, my God. Sometimes for fun or to make each other laugh, the girls would paint their faces, their nails, and even their teeth with the radium paint. No. Oh, my God. Yeah. Now, despite their employers insistence that everything was on the up and up, everything is entirely completely, don't worry about it. It couldn't be safer. It could not be safer. The fact remains that many people, painters and ordinary citizens,

were continuing to get sick. Some like the worker who complained of the mouth source after our mouth, showed signs of radiation burns. Well, others had more complicated problems, because radiation burns at least, you know, like that that scientists, when you're taking away from the radiation, usually your body can heal itself. But others had more complicated problems, like bone deterioration. Some girls took their concerns straight to their regular doctors,

but because radiation poisoning and radiation burns were so uncommon, their symptoms and injuries were like mostly misdiagnosed as other things. Others who went to their managers or company doctors were just ignored. Or worse, they would just the company doctors or managers would just misdiagnose them with sexually transmitted diseases. Are you kidding me? Yeah. To smear the reputations of the women.

Knowing full well what was actually happening. Yep. And they would do this to smear the

Because if you're being told by your company doctor, you have a sexually transmitted disease

in the 1920s. Oh, my God. And you're, he's going to go right ahead. Go talk to your doctor about it. Like you're not going to tell anyone else. You're going to be, you're being ashamed at that point. So fucking evil. Yep. And given all the ways that the dial painters were exposed to

“radium, it was a dentist who usually heard about the first symptoms, because remember a lot of”

that is going in the, in the mouth area. Beginning in the late 1910s, girls were showing up at their dentist's office with complaints of tooth pain, loose teeth, ulcers. We're showing up. And in more extreme cases where the teeth had to be pulled, dental surgeons started noticing that the sockets wouldn't heal. They would just stay in open wound and not heal. And then they would become infected. Right. Of course. It's your fucking mouth. And they were like, what the

fuck is this? And these symptoms caused by exposure to radium, and its tendency to decay bone matter were eventually lumped together into what was informally referred to as radium jaw. You can Google radium jaw at your own risk. Is it horrible? It's just very upsetting. I'm about to. So when the war ended in late 1918, demand for radium dials decreased,

“like dramatic decrease, as did the need for so many dial painters. We didn't need as many.”

Yeah. And Mikey and Ash just looked it up at the same time. You had a, yeah, that's the one. That's the one. That's the one. Oh, that's the one. Oh, they're just so small and jogging. You both did the same gas, but at the same time we're both airsoft. And I knew you both looked. Yeah. Again, at your own risk, it's graphic and upsetting. It's so upsetting that people knew you how dangerous this was. And they were like, yeah, go for it. Yeah, it's on it. Yeah, just stick that

brush in your mouth. But yeah. So while there was still a demand for luminous and watches as the war ended in 1918, that demand was not enough to keep the hundreds of dial painters employed. Like, there was a lot of dial painters. So the companies, including US radium, cut back the workforce. Okay. Still used them though. And many of the painters who were then in their late teens in

“early 20s chose to quit their jobs and get married and start families.”

What this started a second wave of really scary symptoms. No, that these girls are saying,

well, I want to start a family. Right. Even before attempting to get pregnant and have children, many of the painters had noticed that they had very strange changes to their menstrual cycles. I, yeah, I would. Yeah. And then when they began trying to get pregnant, they struggled to conceive and eventually learn that they were sterile. Oh, my God. How heartbreaking. Yeah. And finally, many of the women who were able to conceive somehow were soon absolutely

heartbroken by still births, by miscarriages and by, quote, deformities and body structure of their babies. That's so fucked. The far reaching consequences of this are astronomical. Truly.

The first death came in 1922, but only after a long and when I tell you excruciating,

I mean excruciatingly painful illness by this person. Oh, no. A year earlier, 1921 in September, former dial painter, girl, Molly Maja, had visited her dentist and she had to have a tooth removed because she had pain. Weeks later, however, she was still experiencing pain and that socket had not healed. Weeks later. So she went back to the dentist who dist diagnosed her with pyoria, which is an inflammatory disease of the gums and started treating her for that.

Weeks later, however, it got worse and so had her intense lower jaw pain. To everyone around her, it was very clear she was in terrible pain as her teeth were literally slowly and visibly rotting in her jaw. Oh, God. For no reason at all, like, that everybody could see, but the doctor could not figure out why this was happening. That must have been so terrifying for her to have, like, suddenly start experiencing that and then have your doctor have no

funny idea. No way to stop it. You're an intense pain all the time. And you're just this young girl. Like, so yeah, as far as her dentist, Dr. Joseph Neff could tell, he said it was almost like something was attacking her from the inside, but he couldn't tell what, whatever was affecting Molly's teeth soon spread to her jaw and caused anacrosis. Molly's teeth and jaw were literally rotting. And in fact, at one point, and this is very graphic just so you know, at one point,

like dust in his hands. I. Yeah. Oh, like open wounds in her mouth. Oh, my God. And he just

essentially scooped her jaw out with his hands unintentionally and just crumbled to dust. Feel your jaw. Like, feel how like thick and dead your jaw is. I mean, your mandible is made to crush and to withstand some pressure. Like, think about that. There's supposed to be like really not down on

“things and use it as like a and he just scooped it. It just turned dust because that's what it does.”

It destroys the cells and then you're just disfigured. Oh, yeah. But beyond the unbearable physical pain she experienced, the rapid decay of her mouth was accompanied also and this is just so upsetting by a very noticeable odor of literal decay. Yeah, for our flesh and bone. Think about like

you have like a cavity. Yeah. Oh, fuck. I got a brush my teeth actually. Yes. But hers is literally

rotting like a place that ever faced essentially and then her gums do everything. So she had this intense embarrassment that made her not want to be even around people. And out of ideas, her dentist visited the radium plant and asked for the ingredients in the compound just hoping to clue in on her problem. But the managers at the plant were in crop cooperative and refused to provide any

“information about the paint to him. Let's say, you know, pieces of absolute shit. Yeah.”

And the situation continued to confound her doctor, her dentist, Dr. Nath and those with whom he was consulting, he was trying to get anybody to like he stopped at nothing to try to get some answers

here. Also, just to think that they were like, yeah, no, we're not going to tell you. If this is

happening to one girl. This is obviously going to happen to other people too. Like you're going to run into some shit. So you might as well shut down production and just be on like try to save some people. Yeah, like call an L in L. Yeah. So Dr. Nath said whenever a portion of the affected bone was removed instead of arresting the course of necrosis, it's speeded it up by the fall of 1922, Molly's condition had worsened and her entire jaw having largely disintegrated at this point was

“removed and they had to remove pieces of her inner ear as well. And then it's like, can you even”

she probably couldn't even speak anymore? Oh, and it gets worse. Again, I'm going to tell you this gets very, very rustic, even more graphic. It was at that time that Dr.'s discovered whatever had affected Molly's teeth and jaw had now spread and was eating away at her throat. Oh my god. So they were unable to stop this, which is horrifying because they just could once radiation, once it's in there. What do you can do? Like it's it's happening. So they weren't able to stop whatever was

eating away at Molly at Molly's entire body at this point. And in September, the disease slowly ate its way through her jugular vein. Oh my god, on September 12th, a little past 5 p.m. Molly's jugular vein erupted because it had been eaten away, hammering blood so fast that her sister, who was by her side while she was in bed, could do nothing but watch her bleed to death and choke on her own blood. It was literally a river of blood pouring from her mouth and she just choked to death on her own blood.

What's literally like something? She drowned in her own blood. Oh my god. Yeah. Like that is one of the most horrific things I've ever heard. 100% just this young girl. Yeah. Her body just gets eaten by they're all like in their early 20s, sometimes late teens like they're young. Oh my god. Yeah. And her poor family to watch that happen in her doctor. Like obviously your doctor, you feel a responsibility to help somebody in this man did everything he could. Yeah. He just couldn't do

any. They just threw up a roadblocks to him and let Molly die. And it's no way. Even if they had found out what was causing it, I don't like how can you stop that. Yeah. You can't. You can't. That's just like you can't. Because that's the problem. Like I had I had mentioned this before. And we were shocked by it. How like your body mistakes radium for calcium. So it just keeps going. So because they're very, I guess they're chemically very similar. They can be mistaken by

the you know your body. But so when it tries to infuse that radium into the bones like it does with calcium, alpha particles are released by the radium and that infuses into your bones. And that's what those are the kind of things that cause all these awful things like cancer. Like many of these girls. Many of these young women got like different kind of cancers later in life. And they

Really. It's so scary how delicate the human body is. Yes. And after Molly's funeral, the family

spoke to Dr. Neff to try to find out what happened, which is when they were informed that although he had kept the diagnosis from her at the time, he hadn't told Molly. He said he was diagnosing

“her with the only thing he knew to do. And the only thing that he had been told could was the cause”

of this, which was syphilis. I was thinking you were going to say that. But she did not. Because that's what they would do. They would just label it. Something like that. The company as you can imagine was the US radium was very excited to be able to use that cop out. As C, it wasn't radium poisoning. It was syphilis and it's not our fault. Yeah wrong when they know that wasn't the real cause. No.

Now to do that to her and death, agree kidding me. And the worst thing is it's like they would have

like a coroner's jury at this time where like it was just like laymen on a jury that would like all agree on the cause of you know, and it wasn't even well done. So it's like doctors or anything exactly, which that does change luckily, but that's good. Now as Molly was dying and New Jersey, hundreds of girls in Ottawa, Illinois, started lining up for what we're promised to be

“glamorous jobs as painters at the radium dial company. Like US radium, the radium dial company”

produced luminous and clock and watch faces using the same lip pointing technique as the girl's in New Jersey. And it's not like we have social media where everyone's gonna blast out with the fucks happening in New Jersey over here. Right. So now over in Illinois, they have no fucking clue. Despite the employment ad stated goal of hiring several girls 18 years or over, many of the painters at radium dial were under 18. Some as young as 11 years old. Oh my god. And do you think

what that's going to do to an 11 year old? You have no chance. Not at point none. Like the girls at US radium, the new painters at radium dial quickly became, you know, local celebrities in Ottawa, making the job and making radium seem very glamorous. According to one local paper, the girls were the envy of the others in the little Illinois town when they stepped out with their boyfriends at night. Their dresses and hats and sometimes even their hands and faces. A glow

with the phosphorescence of the luminous paint. Like that. Like that sounds awesome. Like anybody would be like holy shit. I want to say it for my job. Yeah. However, unlike US radium product and material waste didn't seem to be a priority at radium dial. US radium is shit or was shit. But radium, ah, radium dial works. Didn't give a shit about how dangerous the substance was. The girls frequently covered themselves in radium powder and retained each other with the paint

during their lunch hours and even took vials home with them. Yeah. Darlene home whose aunt

“worked at radium dial told her a reporter. I can remember my family talking about my aunt”

bringing home the little vials of radium paint. They would go into their bedroom with the lights off and paint their fingernails, their eyelids, their lips, and they'd laugh at each other because they glowed in the dark. Right. At home. Like it's just entertainment. Yeah. And then you think of they're affecting everybody at home too without even knowing it. Yeah. Exactly. Now,

Holmes aunt, Peg Luni was one of the first girls hired as a painter at radium dial company

in 2020, 2019, 1922 when they opened. And like so many the others, 17-year-old Peg loved the job found it so exciting and glamorous. Also like the others, Peg's boss at radium dial told her and all the other painters that the paint was completely safe, not harmful at all. Quite the opposite. In fact, they she said, quote, they told the girls it would make them beautiful. Yeah. So they actually were encouraging it. But within a few years, it became clear that

they were not being given the correct information. Within a few years of taking the job, Peg Luni started having health problems that one would not typically associate with the young woman barely out of her teens. Okay. Like many of the other painters, it all started, would Peg go into the dentist and having a tooth taken out. Oh, no. The procedure was intended to relieve some of the job pain that she had been experiencing. But in the days and weeks after that,

the pain got worse. The extraction site still didn't heal. Things only got worse from there. And soon after her job pain became so bad and pieces of teeth and job bones started falling out of her mouth regularly. Oh my god. Yes. Like so many others, pegs teeth and job problems soon spread to other areas of her body. She became anemic. She couldn't walk due to crippling pain.

was too ill to walk. Oh. And this is her in her early 20s. Yeah. One day in 1928, peg collapsed at work

and the managers and radium dial made sure she was rushed to the company hospital. I bet. In fact, home said my grandparents and her siblings had no say about her going to the company hospital and we were not allowed to visit. What the fuck? Just the fact that there was company

“hospitals even terrifying. Yeah. They were told she had diphtheria and was quarantined. What?”

Peg Looney died in the radium dial hospital at just 24 years old. 24 and her parents didn't even get to see it this year. And according to her niece, the radium dial company insisted that peg be buried right away and started making preparations. Yeah. I bet. But by then, the family was very suspicious that the company might be trying to hide something. So one of them badasses that they are, they intervened and insisted the family be allowed to give Peg a Catholic burial. Yeah.

And the company relented and even agreed to allow to have an autopsy performed in the presence of Looney's doctor. But when the doctor arrived at the scheduled time, they said, "Oh, the autopsy's already been completed." Oh, maybe it's fine. Anything. It was just a theory. Oh, yeah, totally.

“Yeah. Yeah. Like for sure. This is so fucking shady as fuck. Big companies, usually. Yeah.”

Peg was just the first of many radium dial painters to become ill with mysterious illnesses, and the company just kept attempting to minimize them or cover them up. In 1925, another painter, Katherine Donahue, also started feeling sick and experiencing

incredible pain in her hip that actually caused a limp. And in 1931, radium dial

fired Donahue because, quote, "my limping was causing much talk." She and she told her report of that in 1938. Her story was like so many others. Her pain soon spread. Parts of her jaw started falling out of her fucking head. And she eventually became bedridden and unable to walk. And the local doctor was unable to diagnose her illness. They just had no idea what was going on.

“But insisted that she did have some kind of radium poisoning. Oh, but nobody could prove it. That's”

good though. That at least they were like nope. Yeah. Definitely do. Exactly. There were several more women with teeth bone jaw issues. One women's vertebrae disintegrated from radium incorporation into her bones. Just turned to fucking dust in her back and she collapsed. Her vertebrae turned to dust in her body. Poof. That's your whole ass spine being compromised

by poof turning to dust. And you'll never ever be the same. Now back in New Jersey,

the deaths of Molly Maja and growing number of illnesses among the dial painters set off a wave of speculation that the cause might be related to the radium paint finally. Yeah. A former painter Keentham McDonald said many of the girls I knew and had worked with in the plant began to die off alarmingly fast. And in response, U.S. radium hired a Harvard-trained physiologist consultant in 1924 to evaluate the situation. Who knows what's happening? Oh yeah, don't worry. They had a plan.

When his report to management contained incredibly profoundly negative results and dire dire warnings, the company just issued a fake positive report under the consultant's name and they submitted that. Yeah, under that consultant's name. They linked these mother fuckers were willing to go to to make a quick buck through pieces of absurge and they submitted that to the New Jersey Department of Labor. Under that consultant's name, they just lie.

And he's like said they said it was possible. That's not at all what I said. Yeah. Despite U.S. radiums' vast efforts to cover up the dangers posed by radium in their plants, the consequences were becoming undeniable. Oh yes. Like they're not going to be able to cover the sun. No. Everyone is literally dying after they work at your factory or while working at your factory. They're literally disintegrating. Like their, like, our leaders are disintegrating

in front of everybody. God, when you actually say that and think about like true being hyperbolic, people are disintegrating. They're rotting decaying. Oh my God. In 1925, a statistician with the potential insurance company started documenting the numerous illnesses reported by employees

painters. A short time later, the county medical examiner, Dr. Harrison Martlin documented his

“quote, "detection of gamma rays from living dial painters and the exhalation of radon from”

their lungs." He took it upon himself, actually Dr. Martlin. He took it upon himself to help prove that these young women were being poisoned by radium in the paint that they were working with. And then it was the cause of their suffering and eventual deaths. Wow. Dr. Martlin was able to show that radium outside of the body is enough to burn. Obviously, like we've seen and caused harm but when ingested into the body, it is so much worse because it will continue to create and give

off radiation, essentially forever. Oh my God. It just keeps destroying the living cells around it. It doesn't allow anything to heal. And he said, "This substance they were told was harmless was now basically punching holes into their bones as they walked around." And let me tell you, the corporations tried to discredit him but he was relentless. Even getting the coroner's jury

“system abolished to place a more knowledgeable, incredible basis for these women to plead their”

case in court, eventually. Before the year was over, there was another death. This time it was the sister of one of the U.S. radium dial painters who so contact with radium was sharing a bed with her. That's it. Her sister. Are you serious? Sharing a bed with her and she died. Nothing happened to the sister who was working. She was also going through it. The just sharing a bed

with her, she never had direct contact with radium to kill her. Due to the growing number of

problems with the staff and the decline in demand for the product in 1926, U.S. radium ceased production and closed the plants in New Jersey and moved their entire operation to New York. But by then, the damage had been done and it was becoming unavoidable. The previous year former dial painter Grace Fryer was one of those who the medical examiner had detected radiation in and connected that to her mysterious illnesses that were cropping up and she wanted answers.

She wasn't going to stay quiet. Not just for herself but she said, but for her friends who would become ill and sometimes died. Yeah. Dr. Harrison Martland had confirmed that their illnesses had something to do with their jobs but whether or not there was any negligence involved with something he couldn't prove by himself. Grace, on the other hand, had begun to suspect that her bosses at U.S. radium had actually known a great deal more than they had led on and were going to great lengths

to cover it up. Oh, yeah. In fact, when she was first informed that she was sick, Grace recalled

the day early in her job at the plant where Vaughan Sashaki had explicitly told her not to put the brush in her mouth because it would make her sick. Okay. So for however long, totally fine, everything's great. Don't worry about it. Safe as can be. And then nothing can happen to you. Stick it in there. It's fine. Bob, Bob, and then right as she gets sick, he's like, you shouldn't put that in your mouth. It's like, huh. Why has it been fined up into this point, sir? And she said, if he knew there

was danger in ingesting the radium dust and paint, why had he allowed it to happen for so long? Right. So a few months later, Grace asked Vaughan Sashaki that very question, but aside from a shamedly muttering something about how he'd warned other members of the corporation of the risk, he offered no explanation. Wow. So she literally was like, why did you let everybody do that if you've

“known that? He was like, I tried to tell them money, I think, but yeah. According to Kate Moore,”

Vaughan Sashaki would later claim that he raised his concerns to the board of directors and management, but quote, was opposed by members of the corporation who had charge of the personnel. Sure. So no matter what way you shake it out, assholes. Either way, all the way to shitty company. For years, Grace Fryer had been suffering from mysterious illnesses with no cure and would certainly honestly, most certainly die at a very young age. Yeah. Absolutely. And now after receiving

confirmation that the illness was definitely a direct result, not just of negligence, but of outright deceit and abuse on the part of her employer. She was blocking pissed. So over the course of the following year, she started talking with her friends and former co-workers and was like, let's file a fucking lawsuit against this motherfucker. Good. Because again, it's not just negligence, it's deceit and abuse. Like they did this intentionally. The problem was, though, that it was

unclear whether New Jersey labor laws would cover their damage claims since they had begun so many years earlier. Wow. Also, while there was some evidence to suggest the company knew about the risks, they would have to prove that in court, which wasn't going to be super easy stuff. Regardless of

years, they finally found a lawyer that was willing to take on the case. Nice. It may 1927, Grace

“Fryer filed a suit against US radium, which she was joined with for other former painters,”

Edna Husman, Katherine Schob, keen to McDonald's, and Albina Larisse. In their petition, Fryer and the other women asked for $125,000 in damages, which is like nothing considering what they were going through. Exactly. But lawyers on behalf of US radium argued that the statute of limitations had long expired on their claim, which was true as the state's law was written. Like, dudes, you know what you did. You're a huge corporation with, I'm sure, millions of

fucking dollars give these girls some money so that they can literally pay their medical. Yes, literally.

Now, undeterred, the now referred to in the press says that this is when they got the turn,

the name radium girls. Okay. So the radium girls petition the New Jersey Supreme Court to expand the statute of limitation for workplace negligent claims arguing, quote, "the harmful effect of radioactive substances on workers may set in from one to 18 years after exposure to that substance."

“Wow, it can take that long. So that's why that statute of limitations is bullshit.”

So by the time the court data arrived in January 1928, two of the women had become bedridden. Well, Grace was unable to walk and required a back brace in order to sit up. She was one of the ones who's like vertebrae had, like, distantly disintegrated and, quote, "none could raise their arms

to even take the oath." None of them. That's how sick they were. None of them could even raise an

arm like this. Oh my god. Under the circumstances, the court date was pushed back to April, at which time a number of medical experts and scientists testified on behalf of fire and the others explaining the effects of radiation on the body and how it had caused the specific illnesses in the five women who'd brought the suit. Despite all this and despite the absolute urgency in the fact that two of them are now bedridden and none of them can even raise their hand to take the oath.

“Their health is frail, is not even a word. Yeah, lawyers for U.S. radium successfully petitioned”

to have the case postpones until September. You want to know why? Because they were hoping these ...is everybody ready? Nope. I want everyone to hold on for this answer. They wanted to postpone this case to September because, quote, "several U.S. radium witnesses are vacationing in Europe." That checks. So these women are actively dying, actively dying, and they want to move it further out so that these fucking pieces of shit can finish vacationing

in Europe. We don't want a message. We want a message. Who profited off all of the work that these girls did and are now suffering from? Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I'm so mad right now. Oh my God. By then, the case of the radium girls had received a lot of national coverage. And the judges decision to postpone this case was met with public outrage. You, yeah, I mean, like, yeah, people are no problem. I'll wait until you're done with your yacht. No problem.

Sounds good. Because people, the public had started to see these women, the five women, as symbolic of the ways in which the working class were being exploited by corporations. Nope. No, no, not only that, but people are buying these products. These are the likes and they're like, "Justices here." Right. Given the interest in the story, Fryer and the others use the opportunity to plead their

case to the public and granted interviews in which they told their story. Good. Fryer told the reporter, "I have had 19 operations." But my doctors tell me there is no hope. Oh my God. In each interview, Grace gave details about her illness and how the negligence and recklessness of US radium had affected her life and was going to enter life. She said the worst part of the whole thing is that I don't dare do much with my hands

for fear of being scratched. The least scratch will not heal because of the radium. So she can't even do anything because she's so worried about getting a tiny scratch. Because it won't hurt each, she's done. By late May, three more former painters had joined the suit. Good. I mean, we're now pushing to have the trial moved up, arguing that the plaintiffs might

fucking die before the case was called in September. So, sorry that you're busy on your fucking European vacation. But I might not literally-- Life depends on us. Just days later, Vice Chancellor John Baccus ruled that the statute of

Good. He said my own opinion is that the statute of limitations did not run from the time the

girls took this poison into their systems, but from the time of the injury. And in my opinion, the statute of limitation is not applied until the period of injury ends. Great. Which like hell, yeah. Baccus's opinion didn't end with his opinions on the statute alone. He also addressed the trial delay, rather than continuing on the case, which would be likely held to previous standards.

“Baccus suggested, you know, what girlies? Why don't you drop this existing case?”

File a new one. File that new one that's going to be held to the new shit. Nice. So, file another one, drop this, like get out of there. Among other things, a new case

would have been aided significantly by the information that had come to light during the review

of the statute of limitations, including the fact that managers at the U.S. Radium Corporation had, quote, in setting up the plea of the statute of limitations, essentially confessed that they had been guilty of the wrongs of which the defendant's claim. Yeah. So guilty, it's just that times run out. And now you can use this because guess what, baby, that statute of limitations doesn't exist anymore, but your statements do. Yelp. Still there. Well, the courts and lawyers for both sides,

fought in court, the victims continued their campaign to keep the story in the press. They wanted

“people just keep hearing about this. A few days after the limitations ruling was made,”

Katherine Schob made a surprising offer to the doctors and scientists studying the effects of radium poisoning. Now, Grace Fryer, I'll tell you the author, don't offer, don't worry. But Grace Fryer had previously offered, she'd offered her body for study after her death. Wow. She said, when I die, you can take it to study for radium poisoning. But as one doctor put it, that we examine her body after death would not do so much for medical

science as a living specimen. Okay. They're like, that's great. Like, wonderful. Thank you. Absolutely. But like, it's not going to do what we need it to do, essentially. And given that, Katherine Schob offered herself as a living specimen. What? Telling reporters, I am willing with my fullest confidence in the doctors to undergo experiments that may save the other girls. Wow. I just got children. I just got chills. I just got chills. I have goosebumps all the way

out there. My legs have goosebumps either. Katherine Schob. Wow. What an incredible human.

Not even knowing what like one of these experiments could do to her. But if they were going to save one of her friends, just somebody who had gone through what she had. Exactly. That's amazing. Now, between backers is ruling in the statute case and the ongoing and very much intensifying public support of the victims. Officials from U.S. radium saw that the wind was not blowing in their favor here. Yeah. And the odds were definitely not in their favor. The wind was not blowing

into the sales of their European sailboats. Exactly. Exactly. With just days to go before the start of the new trial, lawyers for U.S. radium reached out to grace and the other women with a settlement offer. Yeah. How much? In exchange for dropping the lawsuit, they offered a $10,000 lump some payment and $600 a year for the rest of their life. That I would say suck my dick. Now that like we just, you know, as Ash just said, it was hardly what had been asked for in the lawsuit.

Yeah. But given that none of them were likely to live much longer, which is very upsetting. All five agreed. It would be better to get some resolution than to die with no one being held accountable. And it's been the like the rest of their lives fighting in this. Unfortunately, understandable by settling out of court, U.S. radium had no obligation to take responsibility for or even acknowledge their role in any of us. In response to the settlement, U.S. radium's president

Clarence Lee gave a statement to the press in which he said, we unfortunately gave work to a great many people who were physically unfit to procure employment in other lines of industry, cripples and persons similarly incapacitated were engaged. What was then considered an act of

“kindness on our part has been turned against us. Are you fucking joshing me, bro?”

Yeah. Be so for real. Be so smart. Be so weird. Fucking for real. You got, I just hit my microphone. Yeah, anger. You got it. Tell me that karma got one of these mother fuckers. Clarence, that statement sent me into fucking oblivion. Like, I mean, we're nice enough to give you a job and you're annoyed because you're just falling on your physically unfit to do it. And it's like joking. I, oh boy, Carlos, go to get you. Now by the mid 1930s, all five of the radium girls

had died without hearing a single word of apology in the company who taken literally everything from

Not one breath of apology. That makes me so fucking angry. I need to know when they got shut down.

“I need to know. Well, the settlement in the U.S. radium case turned out to be just the beginning.”

Oh, another suits followed around the country. Good. An Ottawa, Illinois, Catherine Donahue and several other former painters filed suit against the radium, dial company based in all the gates and it's very similar to the one in the New Jersey case. And by then, the girls who were once known as local celebrities for their work with radium paint had become known in the press as quote, "the society of the living dead." Oh, my God. And that was given to them the moniker

for their like deformities and illnesses. That's a quote. Wow. Like Grace Fryer and the painters from U.S. radium, Donahue and the others in Illinois spent years looking for a lawyer to even take

on the case, but for they finally found someone to represent them. Ultimately, the women won.

But it was at what Kate Moore who, again, we will cite in the in the show notes called, quote, "great personal cost." At the time, Ottawa was a, you know, kind of like a, it's like company town is what it's called, which is a town built around a single company. And few people were reluctant to take on or even question radium dial because a lot of people still relate relied on them for their paycheck or their livings. And Morris said the town didn't really want to

acknowledge what had happened. And there's evidence I've seen in their letters that the radium girls, that like the whistleblowers essentially, that their neighbors, the clergy and business

people kind of shunned them. Wow. The clergy. They're fucking church shunned them because they spoke

up about like dying from radium. That is so aspect. Like what's a fuck? Isn't there a whole bit in the Bible of a community and like love that neighbor to me? Like that they could

“not love that corporation. Bitches. It's love that neighbor. Exactly. I think. And even though”

they won their cases, the rewards were relatively small in the end, with the company paying out $10,000 in total to the victims, which is probably a nickel as far as that is nothing. For the victims of the radium extraction plants around the country, the legal and financial victories were definitely small. And most died truly agonizing deaths in the few years that followed. But still the truth about radium and the abuses of companies like US radium and radium dial had gotten out.

They had gotten people to hear these things. And without them, nobody would have known. In Illinois, Congress passed the Occupational Disease Act as a direct result of Donahue and the others taking their story to the public. And New Jersey, Occupational State Safety Standards were changed as a result of the radium girl, so it was all because of them. Including a provision

“requiring all radium dial painters to be provided with complete protective gear. And in 1949,”

Congress passed a bill making Occupational Disease like those experienced by the dial painters. Something able to be compensated for and considerably extended the federal statute of limitations employees had to file a claim. Good. All because of them. Wow. Despite all that, the country had come to learn about radium in the 1920s and 30s, radium paint was still used in manufacturing as late as 1960s. Shut the fuck up. I'll be it with far more safety precautions in

place, but still. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the number of people harmed are killed by radium paint is unknown. But quote, it is estimated that over several decades approximately 4,000 women around the country worked as dial painters. Now, to this day, places like Orange, New Jersey, and Ottawa, Illinois struggle with the legacy of radium extraction plants like U.S. radium and radium dial. Decades later, large sections of land

on which the factories were sitting. Oh, I didn't even think of them. They've been deemed superfund sites, which is a place where hazardous materials were carelessly produced or stored or dumped. I didn't even think of that while. And in many cases, the toxins that were produced on superfund sites seep into the groundwater and contaminate other natural resources, which put residents at risk for cancer, other melodies. Who knows, somebody get Aaron Brock of it. Yeah, it's all I could think of.

Oh, my God. Oh, I could think of that movie. I do too. For decades following their deaths, the story of the radium girls has found its way back to the public eye many times over through like books, plays, other cultural productions. But unfortunately, the companies responsible for those deaths

has capacity gone overlooked in the long way. Like if you really look at it, but finally in the

summer of 2021, you're joking. Yeah, senators and New Jersey Connecticut and Illinois put forth a bill to formally recognize the lives and sacrifices made by these women. Good. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez told the press, a century after the first radium girl started working in factories and New Jersey Connecticut and Illinois, we stand today to recognize their plight and the contributions of these courageous women to modern workplace standards,

safety standards, and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut echoed that sentiment. He said, this resolution honors the radium girls determined relentless fight for justice throughout the 20th century after being deceived and misled about the risks of their to their health and safety, hundreds of workers suffered mysterious health complications and even died. The radium girls effort to hold corporations accountable for their callous,

uncaring treatment of their employees, paved the way for future workplace safety standards, saving the lives of countless others. We honor their memory by continuing to fight for the

safety and rights of workers everywhere. That's incredible. And that is the story of the

radium girls. It's just so crazy that this is like, I had heard of this before, but only from you I'm pretty sure like, that's something we should learn about in school. Absolutely. Like, I didn't learn about them in school. No. And I feel like we should. Yeah. I have to make chemistry a whole

“lot more interesting. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Wow. And just like, the sacrifice that they made,”

it's, it's an unbelievable story. Like, it is. Because you just can't believe it was like, the book that I referenced many times by Kate Moore is called the radium girls. It's a phenomenal book. I highly suggest it. Go get it. Like, it's really, really fascinating. Yeah. I think we have it up here actually somewhere. It's a phenomenal book. It's so sad, fascinating. It's a movie

to re-reading. Yeah. There's a radium girl's movie. I want to watch it. Yeah. I'm telling you

the story is just the further you get into it, the more it will anger you, it will make you sad, and it'll make you, like, inspired by these women. Like, it's, it's got everything. It's all the pieces seriously. And the fact that these girls were like, fuck no, you're like, Grace, you're not going to play with those. It's Catherine Chobbe is like, no, like, Donnie, he, like, they're all just like, nope, you're not getting away with this. And even if we die, because of it, we're going to make

sure that you can't do this to somebody else. So for them, like, badasses. Wow. What a horrifying

“tale. Truly hard. And that's why I said, I know this is like a different, it's a, oh, it's so”

true, crime. Yeah. It's a fucking crime. It's a crime for sure. It's just a different kind. I like when me do like, obviously, like, all the stuff that we do, but I love the dark history ones. I just, their dark history is my favorite. And there's so much to read about. Yeah, and there's so much that has happened in this world that you don't know about or you don't learn in school that my God, I would have done better in school. Yeah. Oh, I mean, like, okay, I'll play myself to those.

Well, like, this is fascinating and horrifying. All it wants. But yeah, and I think, um, I want to say the last radium girl when I was reading about it, she died at, which I was shocked by, um, that I like, one of the ones who was like in the factories was like 104. Whoa. Yeah, she lived for a very long way. But did she have her effects? I'm not sure about her. It was back in, like, I want to say, like, 2014. And it's crazy that way. Some people had effects and some didn't. And then

knowing that you worked in a, in a plant like that, and then watching women that you worked with, and then you're just sitting there, I'm sure wondering, when is this going to happen to me? Yeah, like, when is my tooth going to fall out? And then the rest is just done. Like, I, I just, um, I, I, on TikTok, I saw a bunny there. We love bunny. I'm a girl. Which was, she shouted us out on her TikTok and I shot myself essentially. She was talking about how she, they found, like, a

small aneurysm, and her carotid artery. But she's okay. Yeah, they don't think it is. But she described it

“and perfectly how I think these girls must have felt. She, she described it as walking around with”

a grenade in her head. Yeah. And that's exactly, like, that hit for me when I, because I was reading this at the same time. And I was like, these girls must have walked around seeing what's happening. Like, you said to all their co-workers and friends, and feeling like they're walking around with a grenade inside of them. Yep. That's just going to, when is it going to explode? Yep. When is it going to happen? No, that's, oh, my god. Any kind of minor tooth pain? You're probably like, oh, my god,

like, this is happening. Or anything. You know, like, when you, when you hear about something, and you're like, do I feel that? Yes. Like, like, like, phantom failure about like an aneurysm

and you're like, oh, my god, it's this. Yeah. Wow. It's a while. A lot of toil Elena. She's

“awesome. Thank you. Wow. Yeah. Well, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. But”

that's a weird that you employ a bunch of girls and tell them, yeah, it's totally fine to eat

fucking radium and nothing will happen to you. And then you know, full well that that actually

“is going to do something to them. And you say, oh, I'm so sorry. I will totally appear.”

In the court case, but I just have to go on my out first.

Suck a dick. Truly by said eloquently by us. [Music]