Radium Girls - History Dispatches

What this episode covers

With the discovery of Radium in 1898 it began to be used in numerous applications. The most famous was a glow in the dark paint. Thousands of women applied for jobs painting watch dials and other instruments, and to keep their paint brush extra fine, they were instructed to lick the brush. This would all be fine, if a bit unsanitary, except that radium is radioactive, and dozens of these women started to die. This is the story of the Radium Girls. Sources https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2018/01/04/the-radium-girls-at-the-national-archives/ https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2019/03/radium-girls-living-dead-women/ https://www.britannica.com/story/radium-girls-the-women-who-fought-for-their-lives-in-a-killer-workplace Images: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1928-05-13/ed-1/?sp=58 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:All_women_or_girls_using_radium_paint_with_no_protection_or_warnings_in_1922,_from-_USRadiumGirls-Argonne1,ca1922-23-150dpi_(cropped).jpg History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This episode was published on December 18, 2025.

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With the discovery of Radium in 1898 it began to be used in numerous applications. The most famous was a glow in the dark paint. Thousands of women applied for jobs painting watch dials and other instruments, and to keep their paint brush extra...

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