Yes, these little victories and small hopes for the future shone brightly during the years of the First World War. From learning about how radium was once believed as the world’s new “wonder drug” to the latest hurdle women had overcome: finally being granted the freedom to vote. Writing about one of Mollie’s appointments that occurred the following spring, author Kate Moore, in the highly acclaimed book The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, retells one of the most terrifying scenes I have ever read, let alone begin to imagine:Įven looking back on this six months later, I remember how immediately hooked and horrified I was by what I was reading about this particular (and often unspoken) staple of American history. With negative test after negative test trying to determine what might be causing Mollie’s illness, her doctor would later misdiagnose her as having “Phossy jaw”-a diagnosis given to many of the female workers until radium poisoning was later clarified. She’d lost a dozen teeth and also developed a stench in her breath, which she was reported to be embarrassed about. While ill, Mollie’s mouth had formed many ulcers. By November of that same year, family members were beginning to worry about her “deteriorating” condition. No matter what her doctor prescribed, Mollie’s condition only worsened. In October 1921, Mollie Maggia would make an appointment for what she believed was just an achy tooth.
Until workers started becoming fatally ill. Given that information and all the hype surrounding the drug, getting paid well and getting your own daily dose of radium was practically a dream job. While it wasn’t always actually in these products, given its expensive and precious namesake, the papers would tell you that radium would give you a “healthful glow” should you consume it. In grocery stores and shops, it wasn’t hard to find radium water, radium face cream, radium toothpaste, etc. While one might think that someone would consider things like lead or chemicals in paint in general, at the time, radium was believed to be this miracle drug that was good for you. In order to have the finest lines and cleanest numbers, though, the women would perform lip-pointing, in that they’d lip, dip, and apply the radium-infused paint onto the dial. One of the better paying jobs for women of this time, radium-dial painting, involved the fine painting of glow-in-the-dark numbers onto watches and airplane instruments. That is, if you believe you can put a price on your life, in which case these female workers never even had a clue. Subjected to working conditions much different from our decades of developed and reformed workers’ rights movements, among other established health and safety regulations, the women of this time period were just happy to work-and for good money, too. The girls working in radium-dial factories back in the early 20th century were not so lucky, however. So, while living through such trying times, what is the rush to go back to a job that doesn’t pay you as much as the (American) government is willing, just to keep you safe? Whether you are vaxxed or unvaxxed during these times, the virus is undoubtedly still believed to be a threat, if not to you, then to others you might come in contact with.
While the need for employees could be the result of many fearing for their own personal health and safety, other arguments discuss unfair working conditions, lack of benefits, and, of course, unfair wages, as the reason for lack of workforce.
#Radium dial tv
Surely you’ve seen the signs at nearly every fast food restaurant and in some cases, TV commercials, offering sign-on bonuses or increased starting wages for practically all forms of occupation.
Living through what seems to be a teetering pandemic world, one of the biggest ongoing conversations-besides the status of case surges and developing variants-is that of people returning or failing to return to work.
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