Several more radium companies did not survive the depression. The US Radium facility in Orange, New Jersey, did not survive the Grace Frier lawsuit after the press ruined its reputation. The problem, Catherine was fighting one of the few firms left standing now that the Great Depression ravaged the American economy. Years earlier Catherine Wolfie had worked for the radium conglomerate painting radium on tiny watch dials. Another former radium girl was fighting for justice against another big radium firm, Radium Dial Co. Catherine Wolfe VS Radium Dial Corp.ġ938, Illinois. The Radium Girls made front page news across the country. It was a fraction of what they were seeking and ultimately was just enough to cover funeral expenses in the end. The girls reluctantly agreed to US Radium's offer $10,000 each, medical and legal bills covered and a $600/year annuity. The outcry prompted the judge to pull the case forward but time was already running out and forced US Radium to offer a settlement. Vilified were the company and the judge presiding over the case.
They were enamored with the struggle of these young girls and quickly sided with them against US Radium. 'The Radium Girls' became front page news across the country, a drama that riveted the public. What US Radium didn't expect was the media spectacle the case became. Eventually the judge adjourned the case for several months while US Radium summoned witnesses. All girls were only given months to live by that time so US Radium simply dragged on legal proceedings in the hope the plaintiffs would pass before going to trial.
When Grace Frier appeared in court for testimony, she was bed ridden and couldn't even raise her arm to take the oath.
He found that nearly the entire workforce exhibited abnormalities in their blood, suggesting a terrifying idea that the company had poisoned everyone there. Not surprisingly, the study conducted by Harvard physiologist Cecil Drinker, returned a positive link between the girls deaths and radium paint. It wouldn't be until 1924 when business began to drop out of paranoia did US Radium finally commission an independent study into the women's deaths. This gave the company ammunition to further deny responsibility. According to her death certificate, Mollie Maggia's death was syphilis. United States Radium Corp vehemently denied any responsibility in the girls' deaths for two solid years. One by one, her co-workers would follow her to the grave under very similar painful conditions. Mollie Maggia became the first confirmed death of a girl to have worked in a radium factory. The poisoning spread to her limbs destroying bones and muscles and finally stricken Mollie to her bed unable to walk.Įventually the disease would claim her life when it ate away at her veins and she bled to death at age 24.
GLOWING RADIUM JAW SKIN
Eventually her jaw literally began to fall apart, the bone crumbling into pieces, the muscle and skin around it reduced to a painful, bloody mess.This became known as Radium Jaw as more and more of the girls experience the same horrific condition a few years or even months later. The empty sockets degenerated into painful bleeding ulcers that wouldn't stop oozing. The lick and dab painting technique engrained in her had caused her teeth to fall out, one by one. However, many were now starting to feel the deadly effects of radium poisoning.Ī girl named Mollie Maggia was amongst the first to experience serious health problems from radium poisoning. United States Radium Corporation, renamed, was the industry leader, still employing hundreds of young girls who hand painting those dials. By now the Great War had ended and many of the original radium girls had moved on to other forms of employment or settled down to family life.
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