The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women (Thorndike Press Large Print Popular and Narrative Nonfiction) Hardcover – Large Print, July 19, 2017

This book is a work of narrative non-fiction that was both fascinating as well as horrifying. These women, trying to do right by their country by painting glowing dials for our armed forces, were placed in harms way by a ruthlessly cruel, indifferent company.The United States Radium Corporation (USRC), for years knew that radium was dangerous and even gave their male employees protective gear. Yet the women painting the dials and turning out the profits for the company were not told of the dangers and encouraged to lip point, putting the radioactive paint-covered brushes in their mouths, in order to pinch pennies. In the desire to put profits first, they knowingly lied to their female workers that placing the brushes in their mouth and consuming radium was safe.They used every dirty legal trick in the book in order to keep their profits to themselves; even when these women, these loyal employees, were becoming crippled and disease ridden from their paint, they turned a blind eye and put fraudulent studies forth to discredit the women. Many women died in abhorrent conditions, suffering, destitute, and maligned by the company. Even pleas, on merciful grounds, were ignored.These selfless women fought the first battle towards today’s Occupation Health Standards as well as for compensation, safety gear, and information on avoiding possibly lethal or harmful hazards in production. They, and their selfless lawyers, fought for the right not to be exploited and sacrificed in the name of corporate greed.This book brought out the human side of the entire equation; not only the greed and apathy of corporate powers, but also brought to light the not just the suffering of these women, but also their accomplishments, hopes, dreams, and families. It wasn’t just a morbid telling of horror and pain, but also the tenacity of the human spirit to survive and provide for loved ones.I very much encourage people to read this; it is not only a perfect time to read it, when the holiday for Radium Girls and the statue erected in their honor is coming up on September 2nd.

Kate Moore's historical bestseller, THE RADIUM GIRLS: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, is not an easy read, and there are some who will not enjoy it. It is a dark story, and it can't be otherwise. Radium was a new and lauded discovery, and several factories opened in the US just before World War I to manufacture watch dials that would glow in the dark, a boon to soldiers in the trenches. Many young women signed up to work in these factories and found the shining radium fascinating. What wasn't known at the time was that radium could also kill. So in handling radium infused paint, even tipping the brushes in their mouths, these young women exposed themselves to a material that would destroy them over the years and take their lives--long after they stopped working for the dial companies. When they realized what had been done to them, some of the women--now married with families--fought for compensation for the health they had lost. This battle brought the radium issue out into the open, thus changing laws and history. When radium was used to make the atomic bomb in World War II, protections were provided to workers and the public. While these young women gave their lives, they may have saved the future of the planet. The author tells the story in great detail, which I found quite intriguing, even though the situation was tragic for the young women involved. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to understand this complex chapter in our nation's history.

An incredible story that is extremely well written. It flows quite well. For me it’s a little bit long in the tooth, but others may appreciate the exquisite storytelling. Highly recommended .

This is an extremely well written account of the lives of the women who helped to change working conditions with dangerous chemicals forever.The vile and atrocious actions of Radium Dial, what they did to these girls, how they tortured and murdered these girls, is repulsive and sickening. How this was allowed to happen for so many years is incomprehensible.Forced to pay their own medical bills for years, while their bodies were literally falling apart, many were driven into financial ruin. Not just the girls themselves, but also husbands and parents, who gave all they had to get treatment for the girls. Homes were lost to pay medical bills, while all along Radium Dial was telling them the paint was safe, while still working hundreds of girls dipping brushes into radium paint and into their mouths."For almost six years, Radium Dial had known the women were radioactive. Yet the knowledge of the discoveries had been carefully concealed by the firm, who feared disruption of their business if the facts became known…the victims had not been informed of their condition, nor the cause, through fear of panic among the workers.”The lives of these girls were held with no more regard by the company than one would hold for the life of a single ant, all the mattered was the money that was being made for them. Dr Flinn was the doctor who had been examining and testing the girls for the company, who declared many times that the girls were perfectly healthy."Dr. Flinn had been examining the girls: taking blood, reading their x-rays. He had been arranging medical treatment and writing to the women on the letter-headed paper of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. “[I] understood,” said Grace’s physician Dr. McCaffrey, who’d arranged her examination with Flinn, “that Dr. Flinn was an MD.”It turns out that Dr. Flinn's degree was in philosophy ... this was who Radium Dial had taking care of the girls for many months, if not yearsThe absolute horror that these girls went through was exponentially increased later with physical exams. As per their settlement, the girls were first examined by the company doctor, the girls' own doctor, and a mutually agreed upon doctor all working together. The girls were positive for radium, but two of the doctors thought there may be fraud by the girls, so they decided to re-do all of the exams, in a hotel room so the girls could be nude.Only the company doctor, who did not believe radium poison existed, was present of the three appointed doctors. There were others in the room ... a doctor who was a close friend of the vice president of Radium Dial who took charge, another random doctor, and also the vice president himself, who "assisted". In a hotel room, with these poor girls nude, and these strange men were watching the examinations, pelvic exams included."The girls perceived at once that this was not an impartial exam, but what recourse did they have to stop it? It was part of their settlement that they would agree to medical procedures. And so they were forced to strip as directed and went through the tests with the company men watching all they did closely."These women, no matter how severe their suffering, no matter how advanced their condition, never stopped fighting."The researchers even went to the Cook County Hospital and brought back Charlotte Purcell’s amputated arm; they found it still in its formaldehyde crypt, saved through the decades due to its never-before-seen symptoms.""In 1963, perhaps at least partly in response to the research on the dial-painters, President Kennedy signed the international Limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited atomic tests above ground, underwater, and in outer space. Strontium-90, it had been determined, was too dangerous for humanity after all. The ban undoubtedly saved lives and, very possibly, the entire human race."What science learned from them has saved the lives of millions around the world, and is still saving people to this day ... that is their legacy.I'm very much looking forward to reading The Woman They Could Not Silence by this author.

It was a bit of a slow start, but so glad I stuck with it. It is an excellent book. A lot of history to be learned.