Alaina Urquhart

So like you just watch this like line of beautiful young girls.

Glowing.

Come out glowing.

Like that must have been like, of course you want to just like idolize this situation.

It just must seem so like otherworldly.

Yeah.

Like some of the young women.

And girls would wear clothing to work that they wanted to wear to the dance later, like on Fridays.

And they would do that so they would get the radium glow on that dress that they wanted to wear.

And then later at the dance, they would be fucking glowing on the dance floor.

So everybody's like, there's that radium girl.

And it's like, this was awesome.

It was like a thing.

Oh my goodness.

But not everyone was as enthusiastic about the job or the effects of working with the paint.

Okay.

According to Moore, some found the paint made them sick.

One woman even got sores on her mouth after just a month of working there.

And within a few years, even those who love their jobs, like Catherine Schaub, they started to notice that there were certain reactions that they were having trouble explaining.

After just a year in the studio, Catherine started getting really bad acne and went to go see a doctor.