Review: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Radium. It's the wonder chemical that glows in the dark. For years, in the early 20th-century clock and watch dials were hand painted with a mixture that included radium to allow the numbers and hands to glow. They were handy to own and almost essential for military personnel. The factories that painted the dial hired women to painstakingly paint each dial by hand. Using fine pointed brushed, each painter would take their brush and dip...lip...brush and then repeat over and over every work day. To get such a fine point on their brush they would use their lips to wet the brush to a fine point. They were told time and again that radium was harmless and was even good for your body. Brush it on your teeth for a bright white glow. Amaze your boyfriends with glowing lips using a little radium to spread on like lipstick. These women would come home looking luminescent from the paint spatters on their body from a hard days work. It was great money and as long as it was safe, the women continued to work and enjoy the camaraderie with their fellow painters.

Companies like the United States Radium Factory quite knowingly lied to these women to make a substantial profit. Many if not all of the companies management and scientific team knew that radium could be harmful and possibly deadly. They kept the truth hidden to keep the women working and supply a product that was in demand. After several women became severely ill and in some cases, died, legal action against the companies involved was filed and a fight began.

Kate Moore tells the story of these women from their viewpoint from the early days of dial painting through the litigation and aftermath. Like any radioactive component, the harmful effects of the poison lives on for many years, in some cases 1600+ years. These brave women fought for justice and for workplace safety. They literally gave their lives for industry-wide reform and rights for those affected by radiation poisoning. Moore pulls the reader into their lives and gives them a voice that cannot be ignored.

It is easy to see why Radium Girls has received the accolades that it has. I hope Moore will find another subject to delve into.

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