Alaina Urquhart

radium, product and material waste didn't seem to be a priority at Radium Dial.

Okay.

U.S.

radium is shit, or was shit, but...

Radium, uh, radium dial?

Worse.

Didn't give a shit about how dangerous this substance was.

Um, the girls frequently covered themselves in radium powder, entertained each other with the paint during their lunch hours, and even took vials home with them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Darlene Holm, whose aunt worked at Radium Dial, told a reporter, I can remember my family talking about my aunt bringing home the little vials of radium paint.

They would go into their bedroom with the lights off and paint their fingernails, their eyelids, their lips, and they'd laugh at each other because they glowed in the dark.

At home.

Like it's just entertaining.

And then you think of they're affecting everybody at home too without even knowing it.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Now, Holmes' aunt, Peg Looney, was one of the first girls hired as a painter at Radium Dial Company in 1922 when they opened.

And like so many of the others, 17-year-old Peg loved the job, found it so exciting and glamorous.

Also like the others, Peg's boss at Radium Dial told her and all the other painters that the paint was completely safe, not harmful at all.