The lasting legacy of the women's fight led to the introduction of new safety standards to protect a whole new generation of dial painters, as well as those working with plutonium in making atomic bombs. It took eight appeals before the former radium girls finally had a victory, in October 1939. An autopsy soon proved that "each and every portion of tissue and bone tested gave evidence of radioactivity". ISBN 0-87553-246-2, American Public Health Association. Nevertheless, Deadly Glow will provide epidemiologists with a full understanding of this important event in epidemic history. During the case, the body of Molly Maggia was exhumed and taken away for an autopsy.Īccording to Moore, Maggia's body was in "a good state of preservation" five years after her death. Radiotherapy uses x-rays to destroy the cancer cells, while doing as little harm as possible to normal cells. The saga of the dial painters is based largely on case studies, and the amount of epidemiologic data is minimal. In 1927, five former dial painters, led by Catherine Donohue and represented by lawyer Leonard Grossman, (working pro bono), filed a legal case against the US Radium Corporation. vmzIvyoOPC- Pulp Librarian JanuA VICTORY AT LAST After a long trial and painful testimony they won their case. It took the death of a male employee of the radium firm for experts to finally take the issue seriously.įinally in 1938 five women - dubbed the Radium Girls - sued the Radiant Dial Company they worked for after Radium exposure left them close to death. The studies were mainly funded by the US Atomic Energy Commission. But 800 miles away in Ottawa, Illinois, where a new studio had opened, the painters were unaware of the problems - and their employers did not inform them of the now-established danger." Internal radioactivity cancer risk was investigated after 1950 through analysis of Radiyum exposed individuals. All watches were placed in a room with a RAD7 real-time radon detector. Moore writes: "In New Jersey, the women's illnesses had an understandable effect on the profession's popularity: dial painting declined. Radium ( (226)Ra) decays to the radioactive gas radon ( (222)Rn), and atmospheric radon concentration measurements taken around a pocket watch in a small sealed glass sphere recorded 18,728 B qm (-3). The only study into the safety of radium was conducted in the same factory.Īccording to Moore, instead of radium firms suspending dial-painting, the managers refused to accept any responsibility and vowed to find the "real cause" of the women's illness. radium dial painters and of the institutional origins of the Center for Human. Radium was not suspected at first because the official line was that it was safe in small doses. cancer may be significantly increased by radium exposure, All soft-tissue. sbR334rpAE- Pulp Librarian JanuON THE BRINK OF DEATH In the 1920s it was marketed as a 'scientific' panacea of wellness. Radium and radioactivity was soon a main ingredient in quack medicine: with extravagent claims made for its health-restoring and energetic properties.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |