Another two years passed before the Ottawa women had their hearing on Jwith the Illinois Industrial Commission. As with the New Jersey case, the statute of limitations stymied debilitated Ottawa dial-painters in 1935 when Donohue and others tried to sue. The dial-painters in Ottawa, Illinois would have read news coverage about the New Jersey workers, but the Radium Dial Company claimed that it was the element mesothorium that was the culprit in New Jersey and that Radium Dial paint was safe because it contained no mesothorium-only radium. “Settlement of a Pathetic Case,” The Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 5, 1928, p. On June 4, 1928, the New Jersey women accepted an out-of-court settlement. “Five Women Dying of Radium Poison,” The Sunday Star (Washington, DC), May 13, 1928, part 3, p. The delay provoked a backlash of newspaper criticism. ![]() Radium Corporation was granted an adjournment until September. After the women testified in January and April 1928, the U.S. Radium Corporation beginning in 1927, but their case was hampered by a two-year statute of limitations. 14.įive sickened former dial-painters in New Jersey sued the U.S. ![]() “Five Women Doomed to Die,” The World (New York, NY), May 10, 1928, p. They were not warned about dangers and did not suspect problems until they began to suffer severe symptoms, including anemia, radium jaw (deterioration of their jaw bones), and deadly cancerous tumors. Especially deadly to the dial-painters, they were instructed to point (lick) their paintbrush tips while painting the numbers on the dials. Well into the 1920s, the dangers of radium were not known to the public, although some executives and scientists in the industry were increasingly aware and protected themselves in the factories where the women worked. “Radium to Extend Life to 100 Years,” The New York Herald, October 14, 1921, p. When Marie and Paul Curie discovered radium in 1898, it was soon viewed as a wondrous and powerful element: a cure for cancer, and a source of beauty and vitality. A different company, Radium Dial, opened a facility in Ottawa, Illinois in late 1922 and Donohue was hired. Radium watches and clocks continued to be popular after World War I. “Radium Dial Studio” employment ad, Free Trader-Journal and Ottawa Fair Dealer (Ottawa, IL), October 25, 1922, 4 O’Clock Edition, p. ad, The New York Times, November 4, 1917, Rotogravure Picture Section, part 6, p. “Xmas Gifts for Men Over There, and Those Who Are Going!” Franklin Simon & Co. ![]() They painted watch dials for soldiers and instrument panels for military equipment-all glowing in the dark. With America entering the First World War on April 6, 1917, some viewed their work as a patriotic contribution to the war effort. By 1917, women were dial-painting at the United States Radium Corporation plant in Orange, New Jersey. For its time, the work was well-paid skilled labor for women. The women were hopeful when they began working in the radium dial factories. “‘Living Death’ Victims,” The Times-News (Hendersonville, NC), February 14, 1938, p.1.ĭonohue, along with others, fought back: they brought lawsuits against the companies that employed them and they won, even though some did not live to receive their compensation. Dubbed “Radium Girls” and “Living Dead,” they suffered radium poisoning and painful, early deaths. She was among the women who painted luminous numbers on watch, clock, and instrument dials using radium-laced paint in factories in New Jersey, Illinois, and Connecticut. ![]() Catherine Wolfe Donohue is not a well-known name, but in the late 1930s newspapers featured her as she lay dying.
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