The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe they light up the night like industrious fireflies. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War. But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women’s cries of corruption. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive – until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. In the a new book titled The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, Kate Moore tells the story of how these dial painters took on the radium companies that made them sickas. The glamour job for young American women between 19 was to paint radium on watches, clock faces, and military dials. She married Thomas Donohue in January 1932, just a few months after being fired from Radium Dial for poor health and a visible limp. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War. A quiet girl, Catherine formed close connections with her coworkers. The book focuses on a series of court cases in which young women, ravaged by the effects of radium, took on powerful radium companies in court. The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women (2017) is a cultural history of radium by English author Kate Moore.
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