In the early 20th century, hundreds of women were employed to paint luminous watch dials using radium-based paint. Despite early warnings from medical experts, companies continued to insist the work was safe. This episode examines the history of the Radium Girls, focusing on what corporate leaders knew, how they delayed accountability, and the lasting legal and public health consequences. It also draws a direct line to modern chemical exposure cases, including PFAS contamination. Supported by court records, contemporaneous news reports, and government data, this episode explores how institutional denial functions, and why the same patterns persist today.
Attribution Notes:
Follow This, Again on Instagram: @thisagainshow
This, Again is written, produced, and hosted by Mallory Faust.
While this episode has some narrative interpretations, it draws heavily from primary source materials, historical journalism, and expert reporting.
Moore, Kate. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2017.
https://www.sourcebooks.com/9781492650959-the-radium-girls-tp.html
Clark, Claudia. Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910–1935. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
https://uncpress.org/book/9780807846407/radium-girls
Martland, Harrison S., Philip Conlon, and Joseph P. Knef. “Some Unrecognized Dangers in the Use and Handling of Radioactive Substances.” Journal of the American Medical Association 85, no. 23 (1925): 1769–76.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/238584
Rich, Nathaniel. “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare.” The New York Times Magazine, January 6, 2016.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html
Library of Congress. “Radium Girls: Living Dead Women.” Headlines and Heroes (blog), March 11, 2019.
https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2019/03/radium-girls-living-dead-women
Fryer v. U.S. Radium Corporation, Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex County, 1927–1928. Records Related to Radium Dial Painters, 1917–1949
Leach v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Circuit Court of West Virginia, Wood County, No. 01-C-698, filed 2001. Class action settlement available via DuPont C8 Health Project.
Dupont_case.pdf
United States Environmental Protection Agency. PFAS Strategic Roadmap: EPA’s Commitments to Action 2021–2024. Washington, DC: EPA, October 2021.
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-10/pfas-roadmap_final-508.pdf
