The fantastic and heartbreaking story of the women who worked with radium paint and paid the price.it is very well researched and reads like a novel. The author builds sympathy for the characters and then relates the horrifying things that happen to their bodies and the corporate greed that allows it to happen. I sometimes felt the author could have let the story speak for itself more, but all in all an excellent book ( )

This is so tragic and grotesque and the epitome of a capitalist hellscape. The way these women had to fight to their early graves for the companies to take responsibility for their clearly disintegrating bodies boggles the mind. What a strange coincidence that all of the women who worked for us have had their jaw bones fall out, couldn't be us.
I had heard that this was a bit repetitive, and that is certainly true. This could have been much shorter and tighter if we didn't have to relive the trauma of each woman over and over. ( )

The Radium Girls racconta la storia delle cosiddette ragazze del radio, le operaie che subirono un avvelenamento da radiazioni di radio, elemento radioattivo scoperto da Marie Curie e da suo marito nel 1898. Il radio era il componente fondamentale della vernice radioluminescente utilizzata per verniciare i quadranti degli orologi per renderli luminosi: considerate che il grosso delle richieste veniva dall’esercito e che stiamo parlando degli USA e di un’azienda aperta nel 1914 e avrete anche solo una vaga idea del quantitativo di radio maneggiato senza alcuna precauzione da queste ragazze (a volte poco più che bambine).

Senza precauzioni perché, sebbene ci fossero indizi che il radio non fosse poi un elemento così innocuo, questi rimasero circoscritti alla comunità scientifica, mentre il marketing vendeva il radio come una specie di panacea per tutti i mali. D’altronde brillava al buio. Veniva usato per trattare alcuni tumori con successo (o almeno così pareva). Era fantastico.

Nessuna delle operaie venne avvertita di fare perlomeno attenzione.

Lip. Dip. Paint.

Questa è la formula, ripetuta più volte nel libro, che descrive la procedura per dipingere i quadranti. Le operaie mettevano i pennelli in bocca per appuntire i peli dei pennelli, immergevano i pennelli nella vernice e dipingevano i numeri e le lancette. Dite che mettersi in bocca della vernice non era comunque una buona idea? Eh, a farglielo capire a quelli della US Radium Corporation… appuntire il pennello con le labbra era il modo più efficiente per produrre più orologi e per dipingerli con più precisione.

Ricorderò questo libro per il dolore estremo e per la lotta incessante. Lo ricorderò per il dolore perché il radio viene scambiato dal nostro corpo per calcio, al quale chimicamente assomiglia: così il radio si deposita nel tessuto osseo, degradandone il midollo e aumentando la possibilità di indurre mutazioni e quindi cancro alle ossa.

L’ho scritto molte volte, non sono una persona particolarmente empatica, però questo libro mi ha devastato. Non tanto per le descrizioni grafiche di cosa accadeva ai corpi di queste ragazze – Moore è molto esplicita, tenetene conto se questo genere di cose vi impressionano – ma per il racconto del loro dolore, un dolore così estremo e disumano da annichilire.

Ma ricorderò questa storia anche per la lotta delle donne che non si sono arrese davanti alla mancanza di una diagnosi corretta, all’impossibilità di una cura, ai rifiuti degli avvocati che non volevano occuparsi di un caso contro un’industria così popolare e strategica, alle menzogne e ai leccapiedi che le portavano avanti. È grazie alla loro tenacia che il diritto del lavoro ha fatto importanti passi avanti negli USA per la tutela dellз lavoratorз, perché la loro salute venisse prima della capacità produttiva.

That was the tragedy. Radium had been known to be harmful since 1901. Every death since was unnecessary.

( )

Non-Fiction can typically be hard for me to read and finish reading because it’s hard for me to stay focused on it as opposed to a fictional story. So I am usually wary about picking up non-fiction, but with Kate Moore’s The Radium Girls, I thankfully had a different than typical experience. The way the story was written not only kept my attention but had me interested in what would happen next as I had never before heard of the so called Radium Girls and their story.

I listened to this on audiobook for the most part, though I did read parts from the physical copy. I thought the audiobook was done well! I mainly read the physical copy towards the end because I knew I could read it more quickly that way. I did also enjoy having the physical copy on hand because it has pictures of some of the girls in the middle of the book along with some of the moments mentioned like the company photograph and moments from court. At the end of the physical copy is included a reading group guide, which I always appreciate. There is also a notes section that tells where the quotes from each chapter come from and a selected bibliography that I found to be interesting.

As I read the book and came across more and more ways that people were using radium and glorying it as a miracle drug, I got more and more horrified, of course now knowing the effects of radium. Then after certain groups and people became aware of these dangers and still continued using radium in the same ways with no precaution and putting other peoples lives in mortal danger, I became much more horrified and honestly angry. I was astounded at how truly villainous the U.S. Radium Company, and the executives and managers therein, continued to show itself.

And even knowing already how vicious radium poisoning is, I was still shocked at some of the experiences some of these girls went through. And that even after everything with Orange, the Ottawa studio kept going, and then with everything after Ottawa and the big case that finally brought justice to those girls, the Luminous Processes company kept going (and in the same town!) causing even further radium poisoning cases. It was at least heartening to hear how the press coverage, testimonies, and other court proceedings arising from the Ottawa case brought about some of the first safety laws for employees and contributed to caution and changes in later events involving nuclear testing and fallout.

I also really appreciate how in this book, Moore primarily focused on bringing the story of each of these girls to the forefront with their own words from sources like diaries and correspondences as well as details about the girls from relatives and others who knew them. The authors note at the end mentions how before this book, the only things available about the radium girls were more focused on the cases and legalese. These were girls who fought hard to tell their own stories, so I am glad that Kate Moore found them and put them together in this book.

Sadly, this is yet another instance of history that a lot of people don’t know about, and I was included before reading about it here. I would highly recommend this book and was glad for the chance to learn about these amazingly courageous women and their fight for justice. ( )

It is sad what these women had to go through, and even sadder that it took a man dying to make even this slightest impact. ( )