(Kerr, Date Unknown)
Radium corporations tightly controlled scientific knowledge regarding radium's effects. Consequently, most research available to doctors and the Radium Girls was positive.
|
In 1925, three years after Grace Fryer’s health issues began, her doctor suggested that her jaw problems were related to her radium painting. A specialist named Frederick Flinn asked to examine her, and he told her she was healthy.
|
An industrial hazard does not exist in the painting of luminous dials. |
He (Flinn) provided the corporation with grounds for plausible deniability [...] Although his opinions were widely suspect, his credentials gave him the appearance of credibility. The company could claim a good-faith belief in its refusal to admit responsibility and offer compensation because it was supported by scientific evidence.
- The New Jersey Radium Dial Workers and the Dynamics of Occupational Disease Litigation in the Early Twentieth Century, Kenneth A. DeVille Mark E. Steiner, 1997.
|
Flinn was able to keep some victims out of the litigation process entirely. Flinn discouraged the workers from pursuing legal action by telling them that they were healthier than he was, or by arguing that dial painting had nothing to do with their illness. Flinn effectively could dampen publicity by keeping victims out of court, and, without publicity, many women and their physicians would not connect their illness and their work experience.
- The New Jersey Radium Dial Workers and the Dynamics of Occupational Disease Litigation in the Early Twentieth Century, Kenneth A. DeVille Mark E. Steiner, 1997.
|
The audio below describes how the Radium Dial Company hid the true cause of Ottawa Radium Girl Margaret Looney's death.
|
In 1921, Sabin von Sochocky and George Willis, the original founders of the USRC, were ousted from the company in a corporate takeover. Sochocky's words to Grace Fryer were the only warnings received from the corporation.
|
Do not do that. Do not do that. You will get sick. |
|
The USRC knew about the harms of radium. In 1922, three years before the first lawsuit, multiple articles in their published bibliography spoke of radium's dangers.
|
There is good reason to fear that neglect of precautions may result in serious injury to the radium workers themselves. |
|
I would suggest that every operator be warned by a printed leaflet of the dangers of getting this material on the skin or into the system, especially the mouth, and that they be forced to use the utmost cleanliness. |
At the request of John Roach, the New Jersey Department of Labor's Deputy Commissioner, Martin Szamatolki tested the luminous paint. Szamatolski's warning to USRC, given years before lip-pointing was banned, was never heeded.
|
It is my belief that the serious condition of the jaw has been caused by the influence of radium.
- Letter from Martin Szamatolski to John Roach, January 30, 1923.
|
The president of the USRC, Arthur Roeder, ordered a inspection of the factory. The health inspector, Cecil Drinker, found serious issues. Roeder threatened to sue Drinker if he published the report - Roeder had been saying for years that the report exonerated his company,
|
“[The New Jersey Department of Labor] has a copy of your report and it shows that ‘every girl is in perfect condition.’ Do you suppose Roeder could do such a thing as to issue a forged report in your name? |
A new industrial risk is described. Investigation originated upon the occurrence of five cases of necrosis of the jaw, three of which were already fatal, among girls employed in applying luminous paint to dials. The condition in each case was a chronic progressive rotting away of the bone closely resembling phossy jaw resulting from phosphorus poisoning. [...] The only possible harmful constituent of the paint is held to be radium.
- Castle, W.B.; Drinker, K.R.; Drinker, C.K. “Necrosis of the Jaw in Workers employed in applying a Luminous Paint containing Radium.” Journal of Industrial Hygiene. 1925. vol. 7, pp. 371-82.
|
Roeder never addressed the issues put forth by Dr. H.S. Martland (the leading doctor on the case), instead blaming an overly-sympathetic public.
|
Perhaps it would not be amiss to discuss briefly the recent suits against this corporation, which have received so much unwarranted and untrue publicity [...] Through a, no doubt, cleverly designed campaign of publicity, the public was appealed to and the appeal met a responsive chord. [...] The spectacle of five women filled with radium, doomed to a speedy and terrible death, according to experts, presented a gruesome picture indeed. |
Introduced into the body [radioactive elements] form fixed deposits in the main organs of the reticuloendothelial system, chiefly the spleen, bones, marrow and liver. Here they continuously emit radiations until they decay according to their individual life history. [He] firmly and without hesitation stated that the problems in the industry were due to radium.
- Martland et al. 1925.
|
There was a thought at the time that if a condition existed it might be due to the brushes, and therefore all brushes were thoroughly sterilized before being used by the operators. Absolute instructions were given not to point the brushes with the lips. |
Arthur Roeder maintained that lip-pointing was forbidden despite multiple testimonies from both Radium Girls and factory supervisors that the practice was sanctioned.
|