About the Radium Girls

Radium was used in the past as a luminous paint for watches because it glows in the dark, and painters were constantly exposed to it. It was common practice to lick (!) the brush to thin it and apply it by hand, especially for drawing small dots or lines on the dial. As a result, young female painters began to develop cancer one after another. They were called the 'Radium Girls,' and they sued the company, bringing attention to the dangers of radium. [In the 1939 trial, an agreement was reached to pay a lump sum of $10,000 plus $600 annually, and they won the lawsuit that lasted for a long 14 years. However, most of the plaintiffs died from the aftereffects of radiation exposure, losing their hair and teeth one by one, without even seeing the fruits of their lawsuit.]