Carter Roy
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Katherine Donohue dies on July 27th, 1938, the day after Radium Dial files yet another appeal.
She's 35 years old.
She never sees the final outcome.
Today, the sites of the old radium factories are EPA Superfund cleanup zones.
The ground is still contaminated.
Some of it may never be fully cleaned.
The half-life of radium is 1,600 years.
And the radium girls themselves, many of them are still glowing in their graves.
It cost them their lives.
But slowly, things change.
Radium dial painting doesn't disappear overnight.
It continues through World War II, but the lip-pointing stops and workers get protective equipment.
Eventually, radium gets replaced altogether.
Today, if I crack open this glow stick, I don't have to worry about it harming me.
So, what do we make of this story?
On one level, this is a tale of corporate greed and callous disregard for human life.
The executives at USRC and Radium Dial know their workers are being poisoned.
They choose profits over people.
They lie.
They cover up.