Review | The Radium Girls

The Book: Radium Girls by Kate Moore

Date Published: May 2, 2017

Dates Read: August 14-24, 2018

Current Goodreads Rating: 4.22/5

I wanted to start off this post with a little bit of a disclaimer. In Kate Moore's The Radium Girls contains a collection of photos of the women affected by the radium they ingested during their time at the Radium Dial Company and other companies like it. These photos are incredible in multiple ways. First, we get to see what these women were going through firsthand. Though we don't actually feel their pain, we do get to see how these women were forever changed by these companies. Second, we get to see just how despicable corporations can be as these companies took one look at these women and refused to do anything to help them. While these photos help us understand the history behind these women, they can be a little unsettling.

Ok, now that that bit of housekeeping is out of the way, let me introduce you to the Radium Girls.

I'm guessing we all know about Marie Curie. If not, take a second and get yourself acquainted and then come back. I'll wait. For those of you who do know of Madame Curie you'll know that she was the person who invented the word "radioactive." During her life she discovered polonium and radium. Even today, over 100 years ago, Curies journals, papers, and even her cookbook are too radioactive to handle. She herself died from aplastic anemia which was believed to have been a result from her long-term exposure to radiation.

With that knowledge in mind it's a little surprising to me that, almost 20 years after its discovery, radium was used in the paint on clock faces. Maybe we weren't entirely aware of the dangers of radium, but I think even Marie Curie released a statement that was basically,

"Oh yeah, radium is some bad shit, ya'll."

(not an actual quote)

However, because human beings are pretty much always idiots all the time, we put radium in everything. Ingesting radium was encouraged because doctors said that it put healthy roses in your cheeks and kept you (meaning women) looking young. It was also very helpful that radium was incredibly illuminating. Literally. That's where the Radium Girls come into play.

Being a Radium Girl was a hot commodity back during World War I. Those brave boys across the globe needed to be able to see their watch faces as they lurk in the shadows gathering intelligence. It also didn't hurt that these women were paid well based on how many watch faces they completed. At first being a Radium Girl was great. Not only were they paid well, but they looked beautiful while doing it. The radium powder would get on their clothes and make them glow like angels. The girls started dressing up to go to work so they could go out on the town and shine.

But then things started to change. Girls got tooth aches that didn't go away. Eventually they were forced to pull those teeth, but then the wounds didn't heal. Gradually the small amounts of radium they had ingested ate through the calcium in their jaw bones until women would literally pick pieces of their bone out of their mouths. The sickness didn't stop there however. The radium didn't settle in just one place in their bodies. One woman developed a sarcoma in her arm which she eventually amputated. One woman developed a sarcoma in her cervix, making it incredibly painful and difficult to urinate.

When these women brought their suffering to the attention of these radium based corporations they were brushed aside. Many women who died were incorrectly listed as dying of syphilis or other diseases that damaged a woman's reputation. It wasn't until the 1930s when these women finally received retribution. They were gawked at like they were exhibits in a zoo and they were labeled as "Living Dead."

Is there a happy ending? I mean sort of. Some women were able to get married, settle down, and have kids before their bodies started to literally fall apart. Some women were even able to hold on long enough to have their day in court and get to see the corporation that had brushed them aside so heartlessly be forced to pay the consequences. Most women however lived a very short and painful life.

The entire book itself is moving. It can't not be when you're talking about actual human lives that were torn apart by something that could have been prevented. However, I think the last 60 or so pages were probably the most moving. You can see the end coming, but, so far, these women have not won against the big corporations that refused to believe them. Time is ticking, pages are turning, and, for one heart stopping second you think, "they're not going to get it." The court case is taken from the courtroom into Catherine Wolf Donohue's house. Too weak to make it in person, but determined to say her piece she delivered her testimony from a couch in her living room surrounded by her husband, her fellow Radium Girls, and an entire courtroom of people. I believe that it is largely thanks to Catherine that radium was officially declared unsafe.

Will this book make you mad? Oh, undoubtedly. There are several times where I had to clench my fists and push forward even though my gut was roiling and my heart was hurting. Here are some of my favorite least favorite moments:

1. The woman who died of syphilis. Not only did this diagnosis bring shame upon her name and her family, but this wasn't corrected until much, much later. The fact that this woman not only had to suffer the physical pain from the radium, but her name remained marred in the eyes of her society for years just makes my blood boil.

2. No one really paid attention until a man fell ill and died. I mean, is there much more to be said here? At what point do we start taking everyone seriously and stop caring only when it comes to men?

3. The sheer audacity of these companies. Throughout the book we are forced to see the CEOs of these companies deliberately hide information from these women and broadcast misinformation when it works in their favor. There are a couple in particular that made me so mad my stomach hurt. The first being the doctor's appointments these women were forced to go to, but never received any notification of their results. The second was just the fact that these men knew. They would occasionally make a passing comment not to dip, but that would be the extent of it. They just let these women kill themselves.

If it makes you mad, what's the point? If it doesn't make you mad, when will we learn? I can guarantee there are companies that are doing the same thing right now. There is something in the day to day things we use that has lasting consequences that may not show up until much, much later. Its a terrifying thought, but I would hope that by knowing the story of the Radium Girls we could do things a little bit differently. Maybe instead of focusing on saving the company money we could focus on saving some human lives.

Long story short:

• Corporations can be incredibly evil

• Women are hella brave

• I want to fight the CEOs from the 1920s.

My Rating: 4/5