Glow

I peeked into the window as I neared the house. The room was a-wash with green, imitating the green light of the "Go" signal in the traffic light on the corner. It was Friday night, the girls night out, after working all week in the factory. We made a decent working class wage of about five cents for every dial we painted using the lip, dip, paint approach. I was slower because I didn't like the taste, so just dipped and painted instead. I was occasionally reprimanded for slowness and inaccuracy since my method was not as precise in comparison to the girls whom followed the lip, dip, paint technique.

We had painted ourselves for fun and the glow of the radium based paint combined with the phosphate created a luscious glow in the dark effect. I looked at my nails, the only thing I could see as I walked under the trees and up the steps to the door. I could see my nails because I too had painted them into luminescence.

We did not know the secret of the dangers we faced each day we walked through the deadly entrance of our employer to our work stations. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt. I would like to say that they did not know, but my mind and heart lead me in another direction.

I entered that party in blind innocence of the damage our jobs were inflicting on ourselves. We were all in a state of ignorant bliss. We looked at each other and admired the images of our gigling faces. Our faces, teeth and nails which we had painted this night reflecting back to us from the mirror. We were brilliant in the dark floating around like a bunch of little bioluminescent butterflies. We landed our glowing appendages on the bottles of liquor that had been stashed in our coats and purses, secluding our "spirits" from the laws of Prohibition.

Our euphoria was soon to be shattered by the ghastly horrors that were slowly penetrating our lives and invading our bodies. The hideous lies of what we had been told was a harmless paint was slowly deteriorating our anatomy, corrupting our living, and extinguishing the very existence of some of my best friends and family members. We were being consumed by the poision. Each day we were our own silent victims. We were subject to our working class status and to the corporate magnets that ran our company and other factories with girls like us. Our "being" contained no substancial value to these moguls. Our existence was only a drop in their pocket books and we were expendable.

My sister began to experience severe jaw pain. One day I found her sitting in the bathtub in water mixed with blood, her teeth had begun falling out. Her jaw was subject to necrosis. Other workers began suffering from joint pain, giving them limited mobility. Anemia, sore throats, and spontaneous bone fractures were inclusive in the health issues created by radium poisioning. It was a Living Hell!

Our attempts to get medical assistance was limited. Doctor's corroborating with these business barons diagnosed many of us with the stigma of syphillis. This tainted diagnosis was also given to my sister whom had never been with a man in her life! She knew this had to be covering the truth since she was a virgin and the disgracing diagnosis was given in order to discredit the workers. It made us appear to be greedy mongers taking advantage of our employer instead of the other way around.

Factory workers in two other locations were facing the same health issues. I wanted to change the situation. I was passionate about making a difference! My sister's condition was worsening. I despised the lies we had willingly accepted. Radium had been touted as a health miracle. People drank radium based water. It could be found in cosmetics and even sometimes in butter or milk. It was said that it increased a persons lifespan. We, therefore, did not think to question the safety or the lies we were told. Why didn't we understand that there must have been some concern when the men working in the lab wore lead aprons? It however, has long been a pattern that the lives of men are considered more valuable than that of their counterparts. I question the reasoning behind this thinking.

Someone had to stop this from happening, ending the infliction of pain on other workers. Many women were continuing their work in the factories. It is the 1920's and economics are difficult. In many instances this factory work is the womens only income. I went about looking for an advocate who genuinely cared about our plight and would be willing to fight for our right of compensation for our pain and suffering.

I found our champion in Harrison Marland, M.D. Five of us girls filed a wrongful action lawsuit against the Radium Dial Company in New Jersey. Our bodies and the graves of our deceased friends were radioactive giving off high levels of radioactivity on geiger counter measurements. We were the 20th Century versions of Marie Curie. Marie Curie had pioneered discoveries with the use of uranium leading to her death from radiation poisioning. Radium Dial Company finally settled suit with us in 1928. The five of us whom had the courage to sue them each received $10,000. In addition we were awarded a yearly stipend of $600 for the duration of our lives.

We became known as the Radium Girls or Glow Girls. We Radium Girls continued to glow in the dark. We were just like the green light of the "Go" signal in the traffic light on the corner.