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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

Kate Moore

Finish date: May 13, 2018

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May 13, 2018 engineereads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biographies

I could not put this book down! The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women is Kate Moore's detailed and fascinating account of female workers employed as dial painters. These women painted dials in the early 20th century with a material that included radium. Radium was a fairly new element at the time and its ill effects on the human body were not well known. Majority of the literature available on radium was contributed by firms that profited from the element. They made outrage I could not put this book down! The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women is Kate Moore's detailed and fascinating account of female workers employed as dial painters. These women painted dials in the early 20th century with a material that included radium. Radium was a fairly new element at the time and its ill effects on the human body were not well known. Majority of the literature available on radium was contributed by firms that profited from the element. They made outrageous claims stating that radium could add years to your life and make you look prettier. These companies paid their workers well, so it was a highly sought-after profession.

The technique for dial painting required the girls to point the brushes using their mouth. The founders of these companies were well aware of the ill effects of radium on the human body. However, business was profitable, so little attention was given to the girls being exposed to harm. One by one the girls, in their early twenties, started to lose their teeth, jaws, and other bones. All the money they earned through their lucrative dial painting jobs was quickly drained by their medical bills. Their families became bankrupt along with them as they struggled to find a cure. However, none of the physicians knew quite what was wrong with them.

The girls and their families suffered so much loss. So many women lost their babies. Their husbands worked night and day to pay the medical bills. They lost entire limbs and bones. Slowly the cause of their suffering became evident. It was radium that was sapping the life out of them. A legal fight between the semi-dead girls and the radium corporations ensued. This story is one of hopes, dreams, horror, and activism. I so grateful to the author for telling the inspiring stories of these courageous girls and their families.

Most shocking to me was the duration for which corporations managed to keep up their lies. They kept lying that radium wasn't killing these women. They kept expanding their business knowing that they were killing more and more women in the process. Their absolute shamelessness and cruelty baffle me, and yet I know that countless people face these monsters daily across the planet. If you read one book this year, make it this. ...more

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