Title: The radium girls
Description: As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" were considered the luckiest alive -- until they began to fall mysteriously ill. As the fatal poison of the radium took hold, they found themselves embroiled in one of America's biggest scandals and a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights.
Subjects: Employers' liability, World War, 1914-1918, Diseases, Toxicology, United States Radium Corporation, Watch dial painters, Case studies, War work, Large type books, Consumers' leagues, History, Radium paint, Industrial hygiene, Women, World war, 1914-1918, women, World war, 1914-1918, united states, Women, united states, history, Industrial toxicology
Places: United States
Time periods: 20th century