History of Radium

In the 1920s, young women were hired to paint radium on watch dials. They were told it was completely safe. They were lied to. The company instructed them to point their brushes with their lips—swallowing deadly radiation hundreds of times a day. Executives knew radium was lethal and refused to enter the factory, yet they told the girls it was "harmless as table salt." Soon their teeth fell out. Their jaws crumbled. Their bones disintegrated. They literally glowed green in the dark as the radiat

In 1926, radium was celebrated as a miraculous cure, Madame Curie gained worldwide recognition, and luminous watches became a fashionable trend—until the female workers who painted them started to experience a puzzling illness. Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls chronicles the journey of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her primary adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who grapples with the unsettling possibility that the very elem

'Radium Girls': Joey King Shines In This Workers' Rights Tale [Review]