Have you ever heard of the Radium Girls? Well, if you haven’t, then you might be interested to learn about this somewhat hidden chapter in history – something you can chat about at dinner tonight. During World War I, thousands of women worked in factories painting watch dials. The problem was that they were using paint made from radium. Radium is toxic, you see. So these women got the nickname the “Radium Girls,” seeing as how light started to glow from under their skin.
Photo by Historia, Shutterstock / Source: Pinterest
It reads like a real science fiction novel, but this was no work of fiction. What made it all worse was the fact that these female workers were told that handling such elements was safe. Only after they started experiencing horrific symptoms did they realize that they hadn’t been told the whole truth. And they decided to take action.
This is the untold story of history’s Radium Girls…