The story of the unfortunate "radium girls" who changed the labor law (6 photos)

The United States Radium Corporation released a watch, which were called "Dispersing the Darkness" and they became very popular both the military and ordinary people: their dial glowed in the dark! IN In the early 1920s, it was a very popular accessory.





To make such a clock, it was necessary to put on the hands and dial luminous paint based on radium. This has been done by many factory workers who kneaded together water, glue and radium powder and applied the mixture to watch parts. Three factories worked on watches: in Waterbury, Connecticut, Orange, New Jersey, and Ottawa (state of Illinois). For each dial they paid one and a half cents, which in converted to our days will be about 30 cents.

The girls did not know that they were working with a deadly substance...



In addition, the brush, after a few strokes, the whole hardened from a thick mixture and lost its shape. The girls were told to returned the shape of the brush by licking it. This was the official instructions and, of course, factory workers could not even imagine that someone will force them to do this with dangerous material. The girls, laughing merrily, even painted themselves a silver death paint lips, teeth and nails.

Much later, the United States Radium Corporation tried to convince judges that they did not know about the dangers of radium, which was part of the paint.



(the so-called "radium jaw" of one of the employees factories: the bones of the lower jaw collapsed from the actively developing necrosis)

Of course they lied. Organization chemists are great about everything knew and even at the stage of creating the coloring powder took all measures precautions to keep direct contact with radium to a minimum. Gloves, masks, lead shields and tongs.



It turned out that the employees of the organization were sick and sick very much. often. The doctors of the company were bribed and intimidated, and therefore they put incorrect diagnoses (most often it was syphilis).

The most common ailments were fractures, anemia, osteonecrosis of the jaw.

It is still impossible to accurately calculate how many hundreds (!) of women died from contact with radioluminescent paint between 1917 and 1928



It all started in the twenties, when five employees of the factory New Jersey sued the company, accusing them of hiding the truth about working conditions. The girls demanded to compensate them for the cost of treatment.

The press attacked the process and thanks in large part to journalists participants in the process and all workers in the production of luminous dials were nicknamed "radium girls".

But the matter did not even reach the court: the parties came to a peaceful agreement. Each of the five received ten thousand dollars, an annual a $600 pension and fully paid medical bills.

The Illinois factory workers decided to follow the example of their colleagues, but received their compensation only in 1938.



The Radium Girls set a legal precedent in the US. It turned out that a single employee can sue the company for injury and receive compensation. It was the first time because earlier the boss was a king and a god, to argue with which the employee could not and had no right to. Case of United States Radium Corporation employees led to a series of new laws that protected workers from arbitrariness their guides.

And watches, by the way, continued to be produced until the 1960s, but girls have already been equipped with protective uniforms and strictly banned touch the paint.