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Radium Girls is a gripping chronicle of corporate greed and the young women, facing nearly impossible odds, who fight against it. The story begins in 1901 in Paris when we learn of the discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie—a precious luminescent substance they’ve been studying.

Fast forward 17 years to Newark, New Jersey, and the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation, where we meet the young women, ranging in ages from 15 to their late 20s. In the prime of their lives, they are  enjoying the exciting changes and wondrous times. WWI is on the horizon with the roaring 20s soon to follow. The girls feel fortunate to be on staff with the high-profile company where they earn top dollar and are doing something significant.

Considered skilled laborers, the radium girls work in a setting called a “studio” as dial painters. They apply the glowing paint mixed with radium onto the faces of clocks and watches. The painting is detailed and requires the use of a fine brush.

Not to be wasted, the application of the paint must, therefore, be precise. All the employees are trained in a practice that involves placing the brush to their lips to achieve the fine and exact tip. Called “lip-pointing,” the technique is taught by trainers and used by all the radium girls in their work.

At the time, radium was touted as having a myriad of health benefits—everything from the use of targeted cancer treatment for tumors to helping reverse the effects of aging. People believed it to be a miracle discovery, and the girls saw it as a benefit to be working with radium.

The dial painters spent their days in the dust of radium, which forever permeated their clothes, hair, and even their food as they ate lunch at their workstations.  Each woman positively glowed from radium, which covered her each day when she left at the end of her shift.

Radium Luminous enjoyed significant growth as glowing watches were in demand with military contracts rolling in during WWI. The glimmering quality of the radium paint proved useful for brightening the knobs and gauges of equipment in military machines as well.

RADIUM FALLOUT

Of course, as 21st-century readers, we know the situation does not bode well for the radium girls. They are dealing with a radioactive substance with a half-life of 1,600 years. Soon into the story, the insidious impact of radium is realized by each.

Rotting teeth, weakened bones, painful joints, and tumors of all kinds begin to appear in these young women. Their doctors and dentists are flummoxed by the cause. Nobody readily understands it is the radium that is behind their illnesses.

Radium Girls painstakingly walks us through the escalating conditions of each girl as her health declined. In one particularly dramatic account, Mollie Maggia suffered from ongoing tooth decay, which quickly resulted in the dentist, Dr. Knef, extracting all of her teeth. Yet, the pain in her jaw persisted.  

During yet another examination, Knef gently probed inside Mollie’s mouth, at which point her jawbone broke away, ‘without operation, but merely by putting his fingers in her mouth and lifting it out.’ Mollie literally decayed in front of her family in both her bones and organs in a matter of weeks, dying in September of 1922 at the age of 24.

Each of the dial girls had similar stories of terrible suffering and mounting medical expenses. It took time, and numerous experts before the correlation was made connecting radium to their diseases. And as the evidence mounted, the powerful leaders who benefited from the use of radium strategized as to how to cover up information and protect themselves from financial liability. The situation was most dire for the young women, who did not have much legal recourse or protection under the law as employees.

THE BAD GUY STRATEGY

The book is divided into the three parts of which the last is titled “Justice.” I’d like to say I felt that justice was realized, but I recommend you read the book and decide. Certainly, the radium girls’ efforts inspire courage, and their actions did change conditions for future workers, but it all came at such personal cost. And as the arch of their stories unfolded, I couldn’t help but feel that the powerful got away with murder just the same.

As I completed Radium Girls, I was glad I read it but was left with a nagging sense of how unfair life can be. The bad players—the powerful and corrupt—do manage to get so much, and often don’t get punished. It seems weird, too, given they tend to follow a similar pattern:

Bad guy experiences success and gains power and wealth —>bad guy uses power and wealth to acquire more of the same —> bad guy never has enough of both power and wealth and uses these resources to get even more. And as is the case of the corrupt and powerful, they use misinformation and the legal loopholes to cover their tracks and fool the public.

Sound familiar?

Radium Girls was a #reallivesbookclub selection and a good read. Moore proved skilled in her writing, capturing the details of these tenacious young women such that they came alive on the page. The courtroom scenes, along with the artful use of the media by their attorney, made for exciting page-turning drama.

But the burning question I’m left with is how we can assure that the bad guys of the world don’t have the last word as often? I guess we keep looking to the heroes such as the Radium Girls who fought for justice, and seek inspiration from them.  

RADIUM GIRLS: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

1. Moore’s goal was to provide each women of the story an intimate presence as an individual rather than just a collection of victims and a vehicle for telling this story. Did she achieve that in your mind?

2. Reading non-fiction provides an opportunity to consider history in relation to current events. What do you find that is similar and different from what goes on for employees today?

3. The first court trial for the dial painters captured the attention of the media, and their reporting helped the cause for the women. Do you think media still serves this role in our society, or has it changed? Why or why not?

4. Did you feel that justice was achieved at the end of the story? In your opinion, what would justice look like if you could re-write the events?

5. Would you recommend this book to another reader? Why or why not?

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Sherry is the founder of Storied Gifts a personal publishing service of family and company histories. She and her team help clients curate and craft their stories into books. When not writing or interviewing, Sherry spends loads of time with her grandchildren and lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

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