Radium’s medicinal power, popular allure, and high price helped attract a group of young women into a blossoming industry. Only the wealthiest members of society could afford to indulge in the radium craze. Radium was so costly that not all products that carried its name actually contained any of this desirable substance. A wellness tonic water made with radium had the price tag of $200, which would amount to $3,700 today. In 1917, a single gram sold for $120,000, which would amount to $2.2 million today. With so many products that offered so many promises of youth, beauty, and perfect health, radium became an unprecedented craze. One entrepreneur even created a radium-based spray that could kill roaches and shine furniture. Radium toothpaste was marketed as the secret to a whiter smile, and radium cosmetics became a new standard for beauty. One advertisement claimed that radium could be used to restore youthful vitality in the elderly. There were radium spas, radium pills, radium butter, and radium lingerie. The wellness market was suddenly awash with radium products. Medical charlatans, pharmacists, and salesmen alike took advantage of this new craze. Because of this life-saving power, radium gained a reputation as a life-giving cure for any and all maladies. After scientists discovered radium’s ability to destroy human tissue, they hastily began using it to treat cancerous tumors. This book review will explore why young female workers were drawn to the radium industry, how it affected their lives, how victims advocated for themselves, and, in turn, how they altered the course of American labor history.ĭuring the first decades of the 20th century, radium was all the rage. In the following decades, dozens of women died as a result of radium exposure, and hundreds more endured devastating health problems such as cancer, tooth loss, deteriorating bones, birth defects, and amputations. Though radium was branded as a marvel of modern medicine and inspired new products, the manufacturers who understood radium’s dangerous effects failed to warn the employees who were most vulnerable to its risks. This was the beginning of radium’s financial heyday. Care about the marginalized narratives of working womenĪs early as 1901, Marie and Pierre Curie, along with their collaborators and fellow scientists, understood the miraculous and devastating effects of radium.Have curiosities about the legacies of female employment and female advocacy.Are interested in American labor history.How a generation of working women fought for justice. In this book review of The Radium Girls, you’ll learn how the leaders of the industry misled its most vulnerable employees and knowingly put them at risk. But when these women began to experience mysterious illnesses and painful deaths, they never guessed that their dazzling new profession might be to blame. At the beginning of the 20th century, working-class women joined the glamorous radium-dial industry, eager to make the best wages of the day.
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