Radium: Its Uses and Effects - Research Paper Example

? Running Head: RADIUM DIAL GIRLS The Radium Dial Girls School Radium: Its Uses and Effects Radium was first discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. The rarity of radium and the long, tedious separation from its parent material, the uranium ore, made it very expensive at $100thousand per gram in 1921. Nevertheless, its amazing features made it worth the price. Radium, according to scientists could store a stable amount of radiation for more than a hundred years with radioactivity strength 3,000 times greater than any radioactive elements (Moss & Eckhardt, 1995). Physicians took interest in the gamma ray emissions from radium radioactive decomposition and the potential therapeutic effects of internally deposited radium in humans (Rowland, 1994). Beginning in 1903, radium use became popular in the U.S. Its healing powers and the improved quality of lives of users have been widely publicized in the country. Radium drink or “liquid sunshine” could treat stomach cancer (Badash, 1979). Tumors could be reduced or removed through direct application of radium salts. Candies and sodas were laced with radium. Radium facial creams could rejuvenate skin in women while radium baths could restore vitality in men. Radithor, radium-mixed water, was claimed to cure dyspepsia, hypertension, sexual incapacity, and several endocrinologic ailments. However, in large quantities, Radithor-intake proved lethal. Millionaire-socialite golf champion Eben Byers, after four years of consuming more than a thousand bottles of Radithor, suffered and died of acute anemia, excessive weight loss, massive damage of his jawbone, skull, and whole skeleton, and failure of kidneys and bone-marrow (Moss & Eckhardt, 1995). Research on the radioluminous ability of radium flourished in the 1900s. In 1908, radium paint was initially developed in Germany. In 1913, America started making “glow in the dark” paint. The U.S. Radium Corporation, a radium extraction factory and radium dial painting industry in Orange, New Jersey, provided the military’s radioluminous watches, clocks, altimeters and devices when America penetrated the World War 1 in 1917. Hundreds of young women were hired to paint the dials of the military instruments (Moss & Eckhardt, 1995). The Radium Dial Girls and their Mysterious Health Deterioration In 1917, Grace Fryer and 70 other women started working at the U.S. Radium Corporation, combining glue, water and radium powder to form a luminous paint, and cautiously applying it with a camel hair brush to the dials and numbers of the military devices. These women use their lips and tongue to shape their brush into a fine point. "Our instructors told us to point them with our lips. I think I pointed mine with my lips about six times to every watch dial. It didn't taste funny. It didn't have any taste, and I didn't know it was harmful," said Grace Fryer in an interview for the Daily Courier (Pfalzgray, 1928). For pranks, some women even painted their nails and teeth to surprise their boyfriends at night. Nearly all surfaces inside the factory glistened with radioluminescence. During that time, everyone knew that radium possesses curative powers. None of the women knew that the tasteless, attractive mixture could lead them to their painful deaths. The owners, company scientists and chemists were well aware of the hazards of radioactivity, thus they took precautionary measures in handling the material. The company even handed out leaflets to their medical staff of the dangers of radium (Neuzil & Kovarik, 1996). After three years, Grace Fryer left the factory and worked as a bank teller. In 1922, her teeth began to loosen and fall out and her jaw bone seriously decayed. No physician could diagnose the unique medical condition of Fryer. In 1925, a dentist finally suggested that she could have acquired her health problems from her previous job as radium dial painter, as his female patients with similar conditions grew in numbers. These patients were employees of dial-painting factories (Neuzil & Kovarik, 1996). A specialist from Columbia University named Frederick Flynn volunteered to examine Fryer. Flynn declared Fryer to be of perfect health and his medical assistant even confirmed her healthy condition. It was later discovered that the “cover-up” was masterminded by the U.S. Radium Corporation to misconstrue the rumor that their employees were suffering from radium poisoning. The volunteer Columbian specialist was actually the industrial toxicologist of the U.S. Radium and his medical assistant was in fact their vice president (Testimony of Grace Fryer, Fryer et al. v. U.S. Radium, 1928). In another dial-painting factory that was popular in Ottawa for “glowing” the dials of military aircraft controls and the “Big Ben” clocks, Margaret Looney, Catherine Donahue and other co-workers died in their twenties after suffering from bulging and literally protruding tumors from their jaw and leg bones. However, autopsies by the company physician recorded diphtheria or anemia as the cause of their deaths (Irvine, 1998). Investigation of the Suspicious Deaths of Workers The deaths of four radium dial painters of the U.S. Radium factory between 1922 and 1924 prompted an investigation request by the New Jersey City Health Department. A report by the medical team of the Consumers League, headed by Dr. Hoffman, declared that the cause of death was positively from radium poisoning, thus discrediting the earlier reports by the factory-conducted investigation that the factory workers died of phosphorous poisoning, mouth ulcers and syphilis (Neuzil & Kovarik, 1996). Written in an investigation report on the working conditions in the factory was that "Dust samples collected in the workroom from various locations and from chairs not used by the workers were all luminous in the dark room. Their hair, faces, hands, arms, necks, the dresses, the underclothes, even the corsets of the dial painters were luminous. One of the girls showed luminous spots on her legs and thighs. The back of another was luminous almost to the waist...." (Castle, Drinker & Drinker, 1925). Dr. Martland, New Jersey’s chief medical inspector, autopsied the bodies of two young women painters who died of jaw necrosis and acute anemia and discovered radioactivity in both cadavers. The remains of the factory physicist were also found to be radioactive. Five other living patients with indications of jaw necrosis and anemia were detected of radon gas (a decomposed chemical from radium) in their breath. The three investigations concluded that radium-ingestion or radium-inhalation most likely caused the occupational poisoning. In 1925, the findings were widely published. The U.S. Radium Corporation and other dial-painting factories opposed the results of the investigation. However, the deaths of more radium-dial painters confirmed the findings (Moss & Eckhardt, 1995). The Lawsuit and The Settlement In 1925, Grace Fryer decided to take legal action. Because the U.S. Radium was too influential and affluent, it took her two years to find a lawyer. On May 18, 1927, Raymond Berry, a young attorney from Newark took the case and filed a complaint in the New Jersey Court. Four other radium-injured women dial painters, namely Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, and sisters Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice, joined the court case, each woman demanding $250,000 in damages for medical expenses and sufferings. The case became hyped in the national and international newspapers and the five women became popularly known as the “Radium Girls” (Neuzil & Kovarik, 1996). Legal manipulations and delaying tactics by the U.S. Radium slowed the court proceedings. The health conditions of the Radium Girls significantly worsened. By the first court hearing in January 1928, the two sisters, McDonald and Larice, were bed-ridden. Grace Fryer could not walk, could not sit up without a back brace, and was completely without teeth. The women could not even lift their arms to pledge oath. The Radium Girls were dying. The dismal conditions of the women depicted in the headlines reached Marie Curie, the French scientist and discoverer of radium (Neuzil & Kovarik, 1996). Curie, in an interview for the New York Journal, said, "There is absolutely no means of destroying the substance once it enters the human body" (Curie, 1926). During the second hearing in April 1928, the Radium Girls were extremely weak and unwell to attend. The case was postponed until September, in spite of the laborious protests from the women’s legal representative, Attorney Berry. Apparently, the U.S. Radium’s witnesses were unavailable in the summer (Neuzil & Kovarik, 1996). Even media men were infuriated of the decision of the judge, seemingly favoring the side of the U.S. Radium. Lippmann, world editor of the most prominent newspaper, New York World, wrote in his editorial, “There is no possible excuse for such a delay. The women are dying. If ever a case called for prompt adjudication, it is the case of five crippled women who are fighting for a few miserable dollars to ease their last days on earth” (Lippmann, May 10, 1928). In the following editorial, he wrote, “This is a heartless proceeding. It is unmanly, unjust and cruel. This is a case which calls not for fine-spun litigation but for simple, quick, direct justice” (Lippmann, May 19, 1928). The public indignation convinced the court to reschedule the hearing for June 1928. However, before the trial, Berry and the five Radium Girls reluctantly agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $10, 000 for each of them and $600 yearly allowance while they lived. All medical bills and legal expenses, as agreed, would be paid by U.S. Radium. With only a little time to live, and too desperate for financial provisions for medication and hospitalization, the women could not decline the offer. The last of the five Radium Dial Girls died in the 1930s (Neuzil & Kovarik, 1996). The Aftermath The episode of the “Radium Dial Girls” was a significant phase in the history of health and welfare in America. It is marked by the fight for workers compensation and safety and factory inspection laws. It also led to several changes in environmental laws. The number of lives that radium perished is uncertain, however the rousing of the women’s legal battle, the media interest and public outrage led to the U.S. Congress passage of a bill in 1949 — that all occupational diseases are made compensable, and that the period during which workers could discover sickness and make a claim is extended (Radium Girls: Lessons from the Past, 2002). References Badash, L. (1979). Radioactivity in America: Growth and Decay of a Science. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press, 25. Castle, W. B., Drinker, K. R. & Drinker, C. K. (1925, August). Necrosis of the Jaw in RadiumWorkers. Journal of Industrial Hygiene, 373. Curie, M. (1926, May 26). Radium Poison Hopeless. New York Journal. Irvine, M. (1998). Suffering Endures for ‘Radium Girls’ who painted watches in the ‘20s. Associated Press. Retrieved May 15, 2012 from http://www.­rst2.­edu/­ties/­radon/­ramfordu/­pdffiles/­suffering radium­ girls.­pdf Lippmann, W. (1928, May 10). Five Women Doomed to Die. New York World. Lippmann, W. (1928, May 19). The Case of the Five Women. New York World, 23. Moss, W. & Eckhardt, R. (1995). Radium: The Benchmark. Human Plutonium Injection Experiment. Los Alamos Science, 23: 224-233. Neuzil, M. & Kovarik, W. (1996). Mass Media and Environmental Conflict: America's Green Crusades. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.  Pfalzgray, F. L. (1928, April 30). Radium Victim Battles Death with Courage. Orange, N.J. Daily Courier, 1. Radium Girls: Lessons from the Past (2002). Environmental Health. Retrieved May 15, 2012 from http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/fall02radium.html Rowland, R. E. (1994). Radium in Humans: A Review of Human Studies. Environmental Research Division. Argonne National Laboratory. Retrieved May 15, 2012 from http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/documents/fullText/ACC0029.pdf Testimony of Grace Fryer, Fryer et al. v. U.S. Radium, (1928, January 11). Records of the National Consumers League, Raymond H. Berry files, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Read More