U.S Radium Corporation

The U.S Radium Corporation was founded by Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky and Dr. George S. Willis. It is located in Orange, New Jersey. It emplyed numerous workers, mainly women. This company's main purpose was to produce luminous paints, produced under the name Undark. The luminous paint were mostly used to paint the faces of watches, which were sold to the U.S Amry for the soldiers. During this age, the thought process was that since radium could shrink tumors and destroy cancer cells , it should be good for anything. So they started using it for water, toothpaste, soda, and other daily products. Things began to turn for the worse when the women were suggested to use a method called lip-pointing which was to use their tongues to sharpen the edge of the brush. These girls would later be known as the Radium Girls. They would starting suffering from illnesses and cancer. The most affected area would be the jaw and mouth because the girls were using the mouth and ingesting radium. What's most concerning is that the girls were told that the paint was harmless. These problems were then taken to court and the company were sued. The company tried to cover up the mess by saying that the girls were in good health when they clearly weren't. The court cases would take years because the victims couldn't talk or walk to testify, and by then most of them died. One positive outcome out of all this tradegy is that the U.S Congress passed a law basically improving factory work condtions.