PowerPoint Presentation

[Audio] I am currently very sick, and I have completely lost my voice. My presentation will be delivered through a text-to-speech narration. Thank you for your understanding..

[Audio] To begin, my chosen research topic and information is derived from the book, "The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of Americas Shining Women" by Kate Moore. The goal of my research was to further analyze the historical aspects of the health effects of radium exposure and the medical treatments available during the early 20th century. This presentation includes supplemental context regarding the history of radium, how it was used, female labor conditions of women who worked in a factory, and the women's courageous legal battle for justice to greater understand one of the biggest scandals of the early 20th century..

[Audio] After the discovery of radium was made by Marie and Pierre Curie in Paris France in December 1819, radium would gain reputation to be rare, expensive, and have mass potential to evolve as a product of sales because the mainstream position was that all the effects of radium were positive. The eerie glow of the radium would been labeled to have enchantment, which our author reminds us can also mean a curse. The price of radium at the time was $120,000 for a single gram (2.2 million value today) and it's rarity was glamorized in early 1917 society through newspapers, magazines, and cartoons as a "cure all treatment" for cancer, hay fever, constipation, and aging. Radium clinics and spas existed, radium foods and water were often consumed by the wealthy, and pharmacist sold dressings and pills for people who could afford them. It was Sabin Von Sochocky would mix zinc and radium sulfide to create a glow in the dark paint "Undark" and he would eventually become founder of The United States Radium Corporation who would open up a warehouse in Newark, New Jersey , the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation, where young women from a low social economic status and often from a family of immigrants would be hired to paint watch dials for soldiers using the glow in the dark paint to make the numbers on the dials glow amidst World War I..

[Audio] On April 6,1917 congress voted America into the conflict, "the war to end all wars". Demand skyrocketed, and company expansion took place which meant the recruitment of many younger female dial painters. Only grammar school education was received for majority working class women and working in the "radium studio" was a job that many women were deemed lucky to have at the time. The girls sat side by side, wearing ordinary clothes, using the finest brushes to paint tiny numbers on the faces of watches, and how much they were paid depended on their production rate at an average $1.50 a watch. Each dial painter was given her own supply of the material, and they were to mix the radium powder with other substances to create the paint. The powder got all over the place, including on the girls thus the name "the shining girls." Although many factories around the world would develop many techniques to paint the fine digits, America developed a "lip-pointing technique" and the girls would put the brushes in their mouths to shape the tips of the brushes. Despite the absence of precautionary protection and the concerns from many of the girls, they were all told the amount of radium contained in the paint was harmless..

[Audio] It was in the early 1920's when doctors started to see young female patients with severe dental problems and many cases lead to the removal of teeth. Dentists identified similar symptoms to "phossy jaw" which was caused by phosphorus exposure, but many people died before radium became a serious possible consideration for the cause of illness. Some known and more common symptoms included tooth ache like pain at first but eventually transpire to "jaw rot", sore joints, oozing mouth sores, and lethargy. Although each girl had her own experience and reaction to the radium exposure, the illness ultimately sentenced the girls to a painful undeserved death. In 1923, U.S Public Health Service issued "safety precautions" for working with radium and the cause for skin erosion and anemia, but no mention of poisoning or necrosis. To avoid lawsuits, in the year 1924 the U.S Radium Corporation conducted their own study on the dangers of radium and would eventually try to cover up evidence found by prosecutors. It wasn't until November 1927; the first testimony was taken in the girls trial and in 1928 a settlement was reached for five women for compensation for the impact of radium poisoning. The case would live on as "The Case of the Five Women Doomed to Die." If you are interested in learning more on the topic of health effects of radium exposure and the medical treatments available during the early 20th century, female labor conditions, and how American women sought justice against greedy capitalist corporation I suggest you read the book "Radium Girls: The Dark Story of Americas Shining Women." by Kate Moore.