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Radium girls had industrial disease

from:  Dear Dr. Gott, Peter H. Gott, M.D., Anderson Independent-Mail

Paraphrased by:  Steve Waldrop

Have you ever heard of radium girls?  During World War I, young women were hired to paint the luminous numbers on wristwatches designed for American soldiers.  Then in the 1920's , glow-in-the-dark wristwatch dials became popular with the general public.  These women were taught to sharpen the tips of their paint brushes between their lips.  By doing this, they absorbed substantial quantities of radium.  Some radium girls even went so far as to paint their clothing, their fingernails and their teeth. No one at this time appreciated the disastrous consequences of radiation exposure.

The watch-dial painters developed hideous mouth and jaw cancers, anemia, bone fractures and an host of other symptoms directly attributed to their occupation.   It wasn't until after the Hiroshima bombing, that the public began to appreciate radiation danger.

Many radium girls filed lawsuits, the watch-dial companies rejected the claims, and government regulators claimed that the evidence was insufficient to warrant further investigation.  This whole experience became a damning indictment of the politics of industrial disease.

For those interested readers, the whole issue has been reviewed and analyzed in a new book, "Radium Girls:  Women and Industrial Health Reforms, 1910-1935," by Claudia Clark, University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

For a copy of Dr. Gott's Health Report "Viruses and Cancer", readers should send $2 plus a long, self-addressed , stamped envelope to PO Box 2017, Murray Hill Station, New York, NY  10156.  Be sure to mention the title.

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