Antinuclear

Radium is a highly radioactive metal that’s dangerous to inhale, ingest, or be in close proximity to for extended periods of time without the use of proper protective gear. But in the early 1900s, it could be found in everything from cosmetics to paint. After its discovery in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie, radium was even believed to be beneficial to your health in small doses. It was mixed with zinc in paint formulations to emit a faint blue-green light and was utilized in the numbers and dials on watches and clocks to allow them to be read more easily in low-light situations.

In 1917, the U.S. Radium Corporation began producing a new, glowing, radium-filled paint called “Undark.” They hired around 70 young women to paint watches with Undark and assured them that the paint was completely nontoxic. So nontoxic that they would wet their paint brushes with their mouths, purposefully paint their skin with it, and let the radium powder coat their best dresses so when they went to parties after work they would glow.

In 1922 Mollie Maggia, a dial painter, died of radium poisoning. She would be the first of more than 50 factory workers to eventually die from prolonged exposure to what the girls believed was harmless paint. They suffered from horrible tumors and the disintegration of their jaws.

Five “Radium Girls” won a lawsuit against the U.S. Radium Corporation that did lead to an increase in workers’ safety regulations, but not in time to save their lives. Visits to their graves today with a Geiger counter show their remains are still radioactive long after their passing.