In the early 1920s, painting watch dials with radium was considered a desirable job for young women. The work paid well, the girls were called “artists,” and the glowing paint seemed almost magical. Supervisors assured workers that radium was safe—even healthy. They were told to use their lips to make a fine point on their brushes. “Lip, dip, paint” became the routine: put the brush in your mouth, dip it in radium, paint a number. Repeat hundreds of times a day.
What followed was one of the most horrific corporate negligence cases in history. The Radium Girls, as they became known, suffered terrible deaths from radiation poisoning. But their fight for justice transformed worker safety laws and helped establish that employers have a legal duty to protect their workers from occupational hazards.
The Radium Craze
In the early 20th century, radium was perceived as a miracle substance. Discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, it glowed in the dark and seemed to possess almost magical properties. Before its dangers were understood, radium was added to consumer products: toothpaste, cosmetics, chocolate, and even bottled water marketed as health tonics.
During World War I, the U.S. Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey, began hiring women to paint watch dials, clock faces, and instrument panels with radium-based luminescent paint. The glowing dials were especially valuable for military use, allowing soldiers to read watches and instruments in darkness.
The job attracted hundreds of young women, mostly teenagers and women in their early twenties. It paid better than most factory work available to women—about $20 per week, equivalent to roughly $400 today. The work was delicate and required a steady hand, which managers claimed made women ideal employees.
The Workplace
The dial-painting studios were bright, sociable places. The radium paint glowed softly, and the workers themselves became luminescent. Their hands, faces, hair, and clothes would glow in the dark from the radium dust that covered everything. Some girls applied the paint to their teeth or fingernails for fun, enjoying the glow at dances and social events.
Managers encouraged the “lip-pointing” technique: moistening the brush with their lips to create a fine point. Each dial painter would ingest small amounts of radium with every brush stroke. Given that a skilled worker might paint 250 dials per day, the cumulative exposure was enormous.
Meanwhile, in the same facilities, chemists and researchers who worked with radium wore lead aprons, used lead screens, and handled the material with tongs. They knew radium was dangerous. But the young women painting dials weren’t told. When workers asked if the radium was dangerous, supervisors assured them it was harmless—even beneficial to health.
The Symptoms Begin
Around 1922, dial painters began experiencing strange symptoms. Their teeth loosened and fell out. Their jaws ached. Some developed severe anemia. Many experienced bone fractures from seemingly minor impacts.
Dr. Theodore Blum, a dentist in New York, treated several dial painters with a mysterious condition he called “radium jaw.” Their jaw bones were literally disintegrating. Some women’s jawbones could be lifted right out of their mouths.
Grace Fryer, one of the original dial painters, began experiencing tooth pain in 1922. By 1924, her teeth were falling out and her jaw was causing unbearable pain. She consulted numerous doctors, none of whom could help. She became so weak she could barely walk.
Similar stories emerged from other dial painters. Mollie Maggia’s entire lower jaw was removed in 1922 after it became necrotic. She died in September 1922, at age 24. The death certificate listed the cause as ulcerative stomatitis (inflammation of the mouth), but the true cause was radium poisoning.
Corporate Denial
The U.S. Radium Corporation denied any connection between the women’s illnesses and their work. Company doctors examined sick workers and declared them healthy or attributed their symptoms to other causes: syphilis, poor hygiene, or psychosomatic conditions.
When workers died, the company often claimed other causes. Mollie Maggia’s death was attributed to syphilis—a diagnosis that devastated her family but deflected blame from the company. Company officials knew the real cause but actively worked to suppress the truth.
In 1924, Dr. Frederick Flynn examined several dial painters on behalf of U.S. Radium. He reported they were healthy. Flynn was not a real doctor—he was paid by the company to provide false reassurance. His “examinations” were designed to prevent the women from seeking proper medical care or legal action.
Meanwhile, the scientific community was becoming aware of radium’s dangers. Researchers documented radiation sickness among dial painters. But when these findings were presented at medical conferences, U.S. Radium worked to suppress publication and threatened legal action against researchers who spoke publicly.
The Fight for Justice
In 1927, Grace Fryer decided to sue U.S. Radium. Finding a lawyer willing to take on a powerful corporation proved difficult. Attorney Raymond Berry finally agreed to represent her and four other dying women: Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, and sisters Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice.
The five plaintiffs became known as the “Radium Girls.” Their case attracted national attention. Newspapers published photographs of the young women, showing their physical deterioration. Public sympathy grew, but U.S. Radium fought back with legal delays, intimidation, and disinformation.
The company used every legal tactic to delay the trial, knowing the women were dying. They filed motion after motion, hoping the plaintiffs would die before the case went to court. The strategy was cynical but initially effective—several women died during the delays.
The trial finally began in 1928. By this point, Grace Fryer could barely lift her arm to take the oath. She and the other plaintiffs had to be carried into the courtroom. Their testimony was heartbreaking and damning. They described being told radium was safe, being encouraged to lip-point brushes, and then being abandoned when they became sick.
Expert testimony established that radium was responsible for their conditions. Dr. Harrison Martland, a pathologist who had studied the dial painters’ cases, testified that radium had deposited in their bones, causing the bone tissue to die while radioactive decay continued to poison their bodies.
The Settlement
U.S. Radium finally agreed to settle out of court in June 1928, just before the trial verdict. Each of the five plaintiffs received $10,000 (about $175,000 today) plus $600 annually for life and all medical expenses. The settlement also established that corporations could be held liable for occupational disease.
The victory was bittersweet. All five women were dying. Quinta McDonald died in 1929, followed by Mollie Maggia’s sisters and other plaintiffs over the next few years. Grace Fryer, the first to sue, lived until 1933. She spent her final years in pain, her skeleton so brittle that bones broke with minimal stress.
Wider Impact
The Radium Girls’ case had far-reaching consequences beyond the individual settlements:
Occupational Safety Law: The case established the legal principle that employers have a duty to protect workers from occupational hazards, even if the dangers are not immediately apparent. This precedent influenced development of worker safety laws across the United States.
Statute of Limitations Reform: The case established that the statute of limitations for occupational disease should begin when the disease is discovered, not when exposure occurs. This remains a crucial principle in toxic tort cases.
Scientific Understanding: Research prompted by the dial painters’ suffering advanced medical understanding of radiation’s effects on the human body. This knowledge proved crucial during the atomic age.
End of Radium Products: The publicity around the Radium Girls helped end the use of radium in consumer products. By the 1930s, the radium health craze had ended, and the substance was recognized as the deadly poison it is.
Worker Safety Standards: The case contributed to the establishment of workplace safety standards, eventually leading to the creation of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) in 1970.
Legacy
The Radium Girls’ story resonates because it represents a pattern that has repeated throughout industrial history: corporations putting profit before worker safety, covering up dangers, and fighting legal accountability even as workers suffer and die.
The young women who painted radium dials did not set out to be labor martyrs or safety pioneers. They wanted steady work and good pay. They trusted their employers’ assurances that the work was safe. That trust was betrayed in the most terrible way possible.
But their suffering was not in vain. The Radium Girls’ fight for justice established legal protections that have saved countless lives. Their case demonstrated that corporations cannot kill workers with impunity, that workers have a right to know workplace dangers, and that employers must take reasonable precautions to protect employee health and safety.
Today, the handling of radioactive materials is heavily regulated. Workers are monitored for exposure. Safety equipment is mandatory. These protections exist in large part because of the Radium Girls and their refusal to let their suffering be meaningless.
The Radium Girls’ story serves as a reminder that workplace safety protections are not abstract regulations—they are written in the blood and bones of workers who suffered so that others might be protected. Their legacy lives on in every workplace safety standard, every protective equipment requirement, and every worker who goes home healthy at the end of the day.
Grace Fryer and her fellow dial painters deserve to be remembered not as victims but as fighters who challenged corporate power, demanded accountability, and changed the law to protect future workers. They faced death with courage and dignity, transforming their tragedy into lasting legal and social change. In doing so, they illuminated not just watch dials, but the path toward safer, fairer workplaces for all.