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Business History: "The Radium Dial Girls": A Lesson In Work-Place Safety and Ethics
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It was, and remains, one of the most tragic episodes in modern American business history. Tragic? Yes. Because it was so preventable and avoidable. The danger. The risks. The lies. The cover-ups. The cancer. The vomiting. The agony. The suffering. The wasting away. And the deaths on a grand scale.
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Don’t Worry: It’s 
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The Radium Dial Girls were a group of all female factory workers employed by the United States Radium Factory in Orange, New Jersey, in the first decades of the 20th Century.
With the discovery and isolation of the radioactive element Radium by Marie Curie, one specific property of the substance soon became apparent…and marketable. Radium was luminescent. It glowed in the dark. United States Radium soon contracted with watch-makers, particularly in the military, to make glow-in-the-dark watch dials. The company tasked the factory girls with applying the paint-like, liquid radium to the dials.
Perhaps what is most interesting is that the company owners and scientists, familiar with the harmful effects of radium, avoided contact and exposure with the substance at all cost. During the times when they were forced to work with it, they wore protective apparel and worked behind lead screens…they had a secret to guard: they had documented, scientific proof of the "injurious effects" of radium…
…the factory girls were given no such protection. Furthermore, they were told that the substance they were working with was 100% safe!
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So, without any worry or concern, they painted the dials. And when it was seen that the brush heads lost their shape after a number of strokes, thus affecting the fineness of the numbers, the girls were ordered by supervisors to lick the paint brush tips in between dips in the containers of radium. And…
…having been told there was absolutely no risk whatsoever, the girls frequently painted their fingernails and teeth with the radium, applied it to their skin, turned off the lights and enjoyed the spectacle of seeing themselves and their friends glow in the dark!
This scenario would, unfortunately, play itself out on an even larger scale as several additional factories opened in the United States and Canada. They would eventually employ almost 5,000 workers.
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The After-Effects:
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One-half of a micro-Curie is now known to be the highest level of exposure deemed safe. The Radium Dial Girls had each ingested thousands and thousands of micro-Curies.
The women, one-by-one began to lose their hair, their teeth, contract anemia, necrosis of the jaw and fall critically ill. By the early 1930s, sadly, the last of the girls would be dead.
While they were still alive, a number of the girls took legal action against the company. The company falsified data, bought off doctors and researchers and withheld crucial information. They even engaged in a smear-campaign, attributing the womens’ illnesses to syphilis which it claimed they contracted as a result of their "loose behavior."
The case was finally settled in 1928; Along with her death-sentence, each girl received a paltry sum of $10,000.
If anything good did come out of this episode, it was the fact that it served as the precedent for workers obtaining the right to sue companies for damages sustained as a direct result of labor abuse. It’s a shame it took the deaths of thousands of Radium Dial Girls to bring about the changes.
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Implications in Today’s Business World:
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As members of the small business community, whether employers or employees, there are implications. Sure, it is unlikely that we work with radioactive or deadly substances, or toxic chemicals, though it is possible.
Whatever the work-place, however, it is important that a safe environment exists. It is critical that every step necessary is taken to ensure that a work-site is free from danger, harmful aspects and that employers and employees alike are allowed to thrive with no concern or worry for their safety or health. It is about trust!
It is equally important that all parties involved are familiar with their legal rights, protection under labor laws and obligations!
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Dear Reader, Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed this original article. If not, you are banned from my blog for life and I will place a Voodoo curse upon you.
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Image Credits: Radium Dial Girls: gvs.edu: Radium Watch: ci.orange.nj.us; 100% Safe: crohnsdiseaselive.com; Businesspeople: sweden.se
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Yonatan Maisel is a business blogger, history buff and author. He started a business blog one year ago. 90% of his new clients now find their way to him as a direct result of having read one or more posts. Unfortunately for the foreseeable future, Yonatan is not accepting new clients. He is a regular contributor here at www.jobshuk.com.