The Radium Girls

History, not medical advice. This page describes events from the past. It says nothing about what is safe or effective today. For health questions, ask a clinician.

The job

Radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie and was soon sold as a cure for cancer, a face cream and a source of vitality. By 1917 women were painting radium-lit numbers on watch and instrument dials at the United States Radium Corporation plant in Orange, New Jersey. A second company, Radium Dial, opened a studio in Ottawa, Illinois, in late 1922. The pay was good for the time, and during the First World War the work felt patriotic.

The paint was a powder mixed with water, and the brushes lost their point fast. Supervisors told the women to point them with their lips. Many were assured it was harmless. Estimates of how many women did this work run from more than 3,000 to about 4,000, depending on the source. Former painters later recalled their hair and clothes glowing faintly after a shift.

What it did

Radium is chemically similar to calcium, so the body treated it like calcium and put it in the bones. The first signs usually showed up in the mouth: rotting teeth, extraction wounds that would not heal, and necrosis of the jawbone, nicknamed “radium jaw.” Anemia, fragile bones and miscarriages followed. NIST’s history of the case describes one painter whose jawbone shattered when her dentist touched it. Several women developed cancers.

Executives and scientists in the industry were becoming aware of the danger, and some of them protected themselves. The painters were not told.

The lawsuits

Five former dial painters from Orange sued the U.S. Radium Corporation: Grace Fryer, Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice. Sources disagree on when the suit was filed, 1925 or 1927. They also ran into a two-year statute of limitations. By the first hearings in January 1928, some of the women were reportedly too ill to raise their arms to take the oath. Newspaper outrage over the company’s delays was loud, and in June 1928 the company settled. The reported terms were $10,000 each, a $600 annual annuity and medical expenses, with no admission of liability. Some sources put the lump sum as high as $15,000.

In Ottawa, Radium Dial told its workers the paint was safe because it did not contain mesothorium, which it blamed for the New Jersey cases. The Illinois women also hit the statute of limitations in 1935. They finally got a hearing in 1937. Catherine Wolfe Donohue, too sick to travel, testified from her sickbed. The Illinois Industrial Commission ruled for the women in 1938. Donohue died on 27 July 1938, the day after the company filed another appeal. On 23 October 1939 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the final appeal.

Why it matters

The Library of Congress notes the cases are remembered as significant in the development of occupational safety and health standards. Not all of the women lived to see anything come of them, and many never sued.

The full human story, with the names and the courtroom, is told in The Radium Girls affiliate link by Kate Moore. Prefer a library copy? Try Open Library.

What we know

• Women painted radium dials in Orange, New Jersey, Ottawa, Illinois, and Waterbury, Connecticut, and were told to point brushes with their lips.
• Symptoms included jaw necrosis, anemia, fragile bones and cancers.
• Five New Jersey women settled in June 1928.
• Illinois painters won before the state commission in 1938, and the Supreme Court declined the company’s appeal in 1939.

What we don’t know

• How many women worked as dial painters, and how many died of it. Estimates vary.
• The exact settlement figure. Most sources say $10,000 each, some say more.
• Whether the New Jersey suit was filed in 1925 or 1927.
• How much each company knew, and when. The records are contested and incomplete.