In 1925 a pathologist named Harrison Martland developed a test that proved conclusively that radium had poisoned the watch painters by destroying their bodies from the inside. Facing a downturn in business because of the growing controversy, the company finally commissioned an independent study of the matter, which concluded that the painters had died from the effects of radium exposure. For two years their employer vociferously denied any connection between the girls’ deaths and their work. In growing numbers, other Radium Girls became deathly ill, experiencing many of the same agonizing symptoms as Maggia. Doctors were puzzled as to the cause of her condition. Maggia died on September 12, 1922, of a massive hemorrhage.
AMELIA MAGGIA JAW AND RADIUM POISONING FULL
Painful ulcers, bleeding and full of pus, developed where the teeth had been. Soon the tooth next to it also had to be extracted.
Maggia’s first symptom was a toothache, which required the removal of the tooth. Among the first was Amelia (“Mollie”) Maggia, who painted watches for the Radium Luminous Materials Corp. It wasn’t long before the “Radium Girls” began to experience the physical ravages of their exposure. Marie Curie suffered radiation burns while handling it, and she eventually died from radiation exposure. Radium can be extremely dangerous, especially with repeated exposure. When they asked about radium’s safety, they were assured by their managers that they had nothing to worry about.Of course, that wasn’t true. Because some of the watch dials on which they worked were extremely small, they were instructed to use their lips to bring their paint brushes to a fine point. What’s more, the painters ingested the radioactive substance as part of their job. They made the most of the perk, wearing their good dresses to the plant so they’d shine in the dance halls at night, and even painting radium onto their teeth for a smile that would knock their suitors dead.
Radium’s luminosity was part of its allure, and the dial painters soon became known as the “ghost girls” - because by the time they finished their shifts, they themselves would glow in the dark. Dial painting was “the elite job for the poor working girls” it paid more than three times the average factory job, and those lucky enough to land a position ranked in the top 5% of female workers nationally, giving the women financial freedom in a time of burgeoning female empowerment. With war declared, hundreds of working-class women flocked to the studio where they were employed to paint watches and military dials with the new element radium, which had been discovered by Marie Curie a little less than 20 years before. By shreyapai28 on The lights that don’t lie- The case of the radium girls
0 kommentar(er)
