Title: A resolution honoring the lives and legacies of the "Radium Girls".
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
This resolution honors the Radium Girls and recognizes their contribution to the development of workplace safety laws and standards. The Radium Girls were factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from occupational exposure to radium.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 285 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 285

        Honoring the lives and legacies of the ``Radium Girls''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 24, 2021

Mr. Menendez (for himself, Mr. Booker, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Murphy, Mr. 
 Durbin, and Ms. Duckworth) submitted the following resolution; which 
             was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
        Honoring the lives and legacies of the ``Radium Girls''.

Whereas Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898, sparking a craze for 
        radium-infused consumer goods in the early 20th century;
Whereas many entrepreneurs touted radium's supposedly limitless curative 
        properties, even as some scientists began to report serious health 
        hazards associated with the element;
Whereas the ``Radium Girls'' were teenaged girls and young women who, starting 
        in 1917, worked in United States factories painting watch dials and 
        airplane instruments using glow-in-the-dark, radium-infused paint;
Whereas the early Radium Girls painted watches and instruments that United 
        States troops relied on during World War I;
Whereas the majority of the Radium Girls worked for corporations located in 
        Orange, New Jersey, Ottawa, Illinois, and Waterbury, Connecticut;
Whereas the Radium Girls primarily came from working-class backgrounds and some 
        were first- and second-generation Americans;
Whereas, in several instances, the radium corporations' leadership knew that the 
        element could be harmful to human health, but they did not inform the 
        Radium Girls of the risks or implement basic safety standards;
Whereas, in many cases, the radium corporations' management encouraged the 
        Radium Girls to keep their paintbrush tips moist and as fine as possible 
        by putting the paint-covered brushes between their lips, a technique 
        known as ``lip-pointing'';
Whereas, due to lip-pointing, many of the early Radium Girls ingested extremely 
        harmful quantities of radium;
Whereas the Radium Girls breathed in radium-infused dust and touched radium-
        infused paint, and they often glowed by the end of the workday due to 
        the radioactive paint on their clothes and skin;
Whereas many of the Radium Girls began to experience mysterious health problems, 
        including necrosis (rotting) of the jaw, cancer, anemia, bone fractures, 
        and infertility;
Whereas many of the Radium Girls were eventually plagued by debilitating 
        physical pain and severe disabilities;
Whereas an unknown number of the approximately 4,000 Radium Girls died 
        prematurely or experienced the devastating health effects of radium 
        poisoning;
Whereas some physicians and dentists initially dismissed the Radium Girls' 
        hypothesis that their illnesses were linked to their occupations;
Whereas, in some cases, the radium corporations conspired with members of the 
        medical community to conceal the origins of the Radium Girls' illnesses 
        and smear their reputations;
Whereas a number of the Radium Girls, in different States, fought to secure 
        justice for themselves, their families, and their colleagues by suing 
        the radium corporations;
Whereas the Radium Girls' difficult and prolonged legal battles and often 
        horrific medical conditions drew national attention;
Whereas some of the Radium Girls who challenged the radium corporations were 
        shunned by their communities for harming the reputation of a prominent 
        local employer;
Whereas many of the surviving Radium Girls volunteered to participate in 
        scientific studies on the effects of radium on the human body;
Whereas investigations of the Radium Girls' illnesses led to the creation of the 
        new scientific field of human radiobiology;
Whereas the Federal Government relied on data from the Radium Girls' cases to 
        develop safety standards for radium and other radioactive materials for 
        factory workers, medical personnel, and scientists, including the 
        workers and scientists of the Manhattan Project;
Whereas some of the Radium Girls and their families received either no 
        compensation or only meager compensation related to their harmful 
        exposure to radium and their contributions to science;
Whereas the Radium Girls' highly publicized case was among the first in which 
        the courts held an employer responsible for the safety and health of its 
        workers;
Whereas the Radium Girls' struggle for justice was a turning point in the 
        movement to protect workers' safety and ultimately spurred Congress to 
        enact critical occupational health reforms; and
Whereas many workers in the United States today are still fighting for a safe 
        and equitable workplace: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) honors the Radium Girls and their determination to seek 
        justice in the face of overwhelming obstacles;
            (2) recognizes the invaluable contributions of the Radium 
        Girls to developing modern workplace safety laws and standards; 
        and
            (3) reaffirms the commitment of the Federal Government to 
        protecting the health and safety of all workers in the United 
        States.
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