The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

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Part 1, Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Knowledge”

Chapter 9 Summary

In Orange, Grace Fryer is experiencing body and toothaches and has two teeth pulled. She does not know that in Newark, Irene is experiencing similar symptoms and is rapidly deteriorating. Helen Quinlan dies on June 3, 1923, aged 22. Her cause of death is recorded as a bacterial disease, though this was not confirmed by laboratory tests. Irene follows her six weeks later, with suspected cause of death as phosphorus poisoning.

Katherine Schaub knows that Irene had conferred with Dr. Allen about the potential that her job had caused the sickness, but she does not know about Szamatolski’s report to the Department of Labor. In fact, the Department of Labor has done nothing to follow up. She goes to the Department of Health to file a report, detailing the deaths of the three girls and identifying lip-pointing as the cause. The memo filed about her visit simply says that a foreman at the plant dismissed her claims as untrue.

During the summer of 1923, Orange health officer Lenore Young investigates Schaub’s claims, but not thoroughly. Meanwhile, Hazel is still being treated for pyorrhea and is in great pain. Katherine Schaub develops a toothache, and a few other women die. Grace Fryer’s mouth is improving, but her legs are stiff and she walks with a limp. Despite worsening health, Marguerite Carlough continues working at the studio, where lip-pointing had been banned due to claims that acid in the saliva weakened the paint. She finally quits and is losing weight and suffering a toothache. When two teeth are extracted, a piece of decayed jawbone comes with them. Quinta Maggia, too, falls ill after the birth of her second child.

Meanwhile, US Public Health Service makes formal recommendations that workers should take precautions when handling radium.

Chapters 10-11 Summary

In Ottawa, workers encourage family and friends to join them in their pleasant workplace. These include Pearl Payne, an educated 33-year-old. The girls have fun in their work environment, joking with their supervisor, Mr. Reed.

Dr. Barry is treating patient after patient for the same set of symptoms—tooth pain and jaw necrosis. He becomes confident that phosphorus poisoning is the culprit and refuses to treat the women unless they quit work at the factory. By now, word has reached USRC, who are annoyed at the trouble. Business is good, and they have new contracts with the US navy and military. Still, they write to their insurance company to explain the situation and that the work is not harmful. USRC is not concerned because the dentist suspects phosphorus poisoning, and the firm knows that there is no phosphorus in the paint.

Various women are examined by several doctors and treated for a range of conditions, but none show signs of improving and doctors remain puzzled. Hazel goes to see Dr. Theodore Blum, a pioneering oral surgeon who diagnoses her with “poisoning by a radioactive substance” (103). In the town, people have noticed the women’s pain and one citizen writes to the Department of Labor. This results in Commissioner Andrew McBride questioning officer Lenore Young on her findings, and the Public Health Service is brought in. Under state law, the Department of Labor is powerless “stop an industrial process even if it was harmful” (104) even if it wanted to, given its pro-business stance.

The USRC is encountering another problem—too many employees are quitting, and too few are being recruited. On top of this, Hazel’s mother files a claim for compensation on behalf of her daughter. Soon after, USRC launches an investigation, because the rumors and suspicion were bad for business.

Chapter 12 Summary

President Arthur Roeder leads the investigation and recruits professor of physiology Dr. Cecil Drinker to assist. While the firm waits for the investigation to begin, they begin to examine the current dial-painters. Roeder writes to USRC Vice President Viedt that “We should create an atmosphere in the plant of competence” (108) and instructs him to pay a visit to the dentists to see if they’d been exaggerating. The dentists are outraged by his “cold-blooded” attitude when examining the women.

Lenore Young, frustrated by the lack of momentum, writes to Katherine Wiley, of the Consumers League, an organization that advocates for better working conditions for women. Wiley begins her investigation using a list of women that John Roach, deputy commissioner of the Department of Labor, had given her covertly.

Roeder and the Drinkers begin investigating the health of the factory workers, including Marguerite Carlough and her sister Sarah Maillefer. They conduct a survey of the workers and the plant over two days, and are alarmed by employees’ casual attitude towards radium.

Part 1, Chapters 9-12 Analysis

Moore includes several small, illustrative scenes depicting casual consumption and carelessness with radium, including at the beginning of Chapter 10 where a worker’s face is playfully painted in radium paint, and workers eat candy and their lunches at their desks. Through these scenes, Moore shows the reader how commonplace it was to have this careless attitude, but she also demonstrates the separation between expert knowledge and knowledge available to bottom-rung workers. The dangers of radium are already known in some circles, and indeed are becoming more known in the Eastern United States, but in Ottawa, knowledge is not available at all. Though the business executives have access to this knowledge, informing workers would be detrimental to the company’s profits, and so they are kept in the dark. These scenes reinforce the theme of corporate irresponsibility and negligence.

When Katherine goes to the Department of Health to file a report suspecting that radium is the culprit, her words are completely disregarded because Viedt denies that she is telling the truth. This demonstrates that there is a hierarchy of credibility according the state, and that a pro-business government agency is unlikely to believe a young woman over that of a powerful business executive.

The forgotten fragment of jawbone in Knef’s desk and the way it spoiled his film rolls nods to the Prologue, where the small, forgotten vial of radium sickens the unnamed scientist. This points to the latent power of radium, and its harmful effects are not fully known or acknowledged at this early stage of the book.