'Oops' is never good occupational health policy. "We really don't want our factory workers to be the guinea pigs for discovery. By the time World War II came around, the federal government had set basic safety limits for handling radiation.Īnd, she says, there are still lessons to be learned about how we protect people who work with new, untested substances. At 107 years old, she was one of the last of the radium girls.īlum says the radium girls had a profound impact on workplace regulations. Luminous Processes remained in operation until 1977. You just don't know what to blame," she said. Women painting radium on watch dials for the proudly (and aptly) named Radium Dial company Radium Dial moved to Ottawa from Chicago in 1922 and operated there until 1932 when it changed its name to Luminous Processes in reaction to a lawsuit. "I was left with different things, but I lived through them. Ambient dose equivalent rates have been measured for fifteen pocket watches giving results of up to 30 Sv. There's no way to know if her time in the factory contributed. This study re-examines the risk to health from radium ( (226)Ra) dial watches. Over the years, she had some health problems - bad teeth, migraines, two bouts with cancer. In all, by 1927, more than 50 women had died as a direct result of radium paint poisoning.īut Keane was among the hundreds who survived. Many of them ended up using the money to pay for their own funerals. At a factory in New Jersey, the women sued the U.S. Their spines collapsed."ĭozens of women died. "There was one woman who the dentist went to pull a tooth and he pulled her entire jaw out when he did it," says Blum.
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