In 1922 Grace Friar, Teller, was frightened when her teeth began to stagger and fall for no apparent reason.It was only the beginning of her nature: her jaw quickly inflamed and swollen, and she was forced to seek medical help.The doctors did X-rays using a primitive setting.Pictures showed severe destruction of bone, with a unique picture.Jawbone Grace was covered with small holes evenly spaced;it was like a moth-eaten cloth.
While doctors puzzled over the possible causes of a mysterious disease Grace, several similar patients asked for help.All of them lived in the home state of Grace - New Jersey.
local dentist, for example, noted that the rate of decomposition jawbones local women had mysteriously high.Soon zamechena was a general trend: all patients while working on the same watch company, the factory color dials.
In 1902, twenty years before the disease Grace, inventor, William J.. Hammer had brought from Paris interesting souvenir.Famous scientists Marie and Pierre Curie gave him a sample of radium salt crystals.Radioactivity in those days was just opened;properties of radioactive material and the associated risks were unstudied.A blue-green glow and warmth emanating from radium crystals clearly says it is wonderful stuff.Hammer made its mixture of radium samples, glue and zinc sulfide, that glows in the presence of radioactive materials.The result is a paint that glows in the dark.
During the First World War, US Radium Corporation Hammer used a recipe for industrial prozivodstva luminous paint Undark.This paint covers the dials of watches US Marines, allowing them to keep track of time in the dark.The Corporation also prozivodila and sold paint for peaceful purposes: for drawing of numbers on the house, for marking optical sights, switches and dolls with glowing eyes.Over time, the risk of radium became obvious, but the US Radium convincing the public that the amount of radium in their paint was "so small that it is absolutely harmless."While this was true in respect of goods sold at the factory, which manufactured goods, it was not the case.The amount of radium faced unsuspecting workers, was very large.
Hundreds of women, including Grace Friar, worked at US Radium factory in Orange, New Jersey.In those days a little company that offers work for women, and the proposed salary was much higher than at other accessible places.Therefore, the factory ranks tables were always filled with women wanting to earn.These women applied luminous paint on the tiny figures, they were drawing thin glowing lines and arrows on the dials of watches.In use a brush Drawing lose the desired shape;in this case the women received guidance from managers to lick the brush to clean them and give them back into shape.Shining paint was completely tasteless;Guide was assuring women that rosy cheeks - it's the only thing that they face as a result of ingestion of the pigment packed with radium.In addition, radium then heavily advertised as a means from all diseases;it would seem - what there reason for concern?
Unlike workers, academics and owners of US Radium Corporation were well aware of the risks associated with radioactive materials.Naturally, they took a series of measures to protect myself.They knew that the main component of Undark about a million times more active than uranium, and employed in the production of chemical used prosvintsovannye screens, masks and tongs when working with paint.US Radium even distributed pamphlets describing the "harmful effects" of radium, among health care workers.But in the factory shop, where almost every surface emitting radioactive glow, all this information was hidden.Some women even painted nails and teeth radium paint to scare the guys in the dark.
In 1925, three years after the ill Grace, one of the doctors suggested that problems with her jaw may be associated with its work in the former US Radium.But before Grace how to test this theory as it has contacted a specialist at Columbia University named Frederick Flynn and asked to inspect it.After touring Flynn and his "assistant," said Grace's health like no fine.It took a long time before it became clear that Flynn was not a doctor, he did not have permission to practice medicine, and that in reality he was a toxicologist working at US Radium.Assistant Flynn, who was present during the inspection and confirmed his statement about strong health Grace was one of the vice-presidents of US Radium.It turned out, many of the "artist" Undark suffered from serious problems with the bones, especially the jawbone and the corporation, having learned about it, launched a campaign on the underlying causes of their illness.Mysterious deaths blamed on syphilis in an attempt to tarnish the reputation of women, and a large number of doctors and dentists maintain this flow of corporate misinformation.
In the early 1920s, US Radium hired a professor of physiology at Harvard University Cecil Drinker to assess the working conditions at the factory.Conclusion Drinker was horrible: almost every employee was ill, blood count was abnormal bukavalno everyone who worked at the factory.The company filed the conclusion Drinker attribution to the Labor Department, New Jersey.After some time it turned out that a copy filed with the Department of Labor, was edited: all descriptions of unhealthy working conditions and disgusting state of health workers have been replaced by praise and phrases such as "every girl in the factory is in great shape."Worst of all was the fact that the leadership of US Radium ignored all suggestions of improvements recommended Drinker original conclusion.None of them perdlozhenie to protect the health of workers action has not been implemented.
Fake Finally found Drinker colleague, Alice Hamilton in 1925.She wrote Drinker letter advising him to publish the original findings in a scientific journal.Representatives of the US Radium hit the Drinker accusations, threatening to bring him to justice, but still Drinker issued its opinion.Among other things, Drinker wrote that:
"All samples of dust collected in different parts of the plant, and with no chairs used by working women glowed in the dark. The hair, the face, arms, hands, neck, wear, lingerie and even corsets workers who applied paintOn the dial glowed in the dark. Upper and lower thigh of one of the girls were covered with fluorescent spots. The other all back up to the waist shone ... "
US Radium had access to virtually unlimited funds and a large number of lawyers consisted in its content, not to mentionof informal relationships in legal circles.Grace Friar spent nearly two years in the Search for a lawyer who would be willing to go against her former employers.Finally, a young lawyer from Newark, Raymond Berry, took up the case and filed a lawsuit on behalf of Grace in 1927.Soon the matter was supplemented statements of four more victims of radium paint, which at one time painted dials.Each required a $ 250,000 compensation.
In the midst of court battle nobody Joseph P. Nave, a dentist from New York, came to mind provseti more research jaw bones of his dead patient Amelia Maggi.In the last months of life of women razozhilas jaw so that the nave was forced to amputate it.The official cause of death of the patient was named syphilis, but Nave suspected more.He put the bones of the deceased on a photographic plate, and then showed that a photographic plate.Proyavlennoy plate seen on the picture showed "absurd" level of radioactivity.Then Nave took electroscope to confirm its conclusions.
slowly dragged on for weeks and months rabiratelstva court;women's health rapidly declines.During their first appearance in court in January 1928, two women were chained to the bed, and no one could raise his hands to take the oath.Grace Friar still "beautiful" according to the reporter, was almost unable to walk, had to wear an orthopedic corset and lost all her teeth."Radium Girls" soon gained national notoriety in the newspapers, and finally, the description of their terrible condition reached Marie Curie in Paris."I would love to help - said Curie - but, unfortunately, there is no way to destroy the radium, which has already hit the body."
women were not able to attend the next stage of the proceedings in April 1928.Despite loud protests from women lawyer, the judge adjourned the case to September, as several witnesses defendant US Radium were on vacation in Europe, where they can not be byzvat.Walter Lippmann, the editor of the influential newspaper New York World, as rated by the judge's decision: "This is a travesty of justice ... there is no reason for such a long time. Women are dying. If there is a matter that requires immediate attention, because this is exactly the case whenFive mutilated women fighting for several accidents dollars, which will facilitate their last days on earth. "Later, he wrote in an editorial: "It is absolutely heartless decision. It is cruel, unjust and unworthy of a man. This is not the case when you need a long procedural litigation. This is the case requires a direct, simple and quick justice."
Deferred trial sparked a wave of popular indignation, and the meeting was moved to the beginning of June, but a few days before the trial began, Raymond Berry and US Radium agreed to settle the case out of court.District Court Judge William Clark was appointed to negotiate.While in the process of negotiating Berry and Radium Girls learned that Judge Clark owns shares of US Radium, they had to accept the offer of US Radium.Their situation was absolutely desperate;women could die at any moment.Each woman received of $ 10,000 (equivalent to US $ 100,000 today);In addition, all of their medical and legal expenses were to be paid US Radium.They also received $ 600 of annual income for life.Not surprisingly, the company did not have to pay the annual income for a long time.
last of the Radium Girls died in 1930;many other factory workers died from radium poisoning but without achieving justice.Later, medical studies have shown that radium getting into the body, behaves like calcium: concentrated in the bones and teeth.Licking their brushes at the direction of management, workers absorbed from a few hundred to a few thousand microcurie radium per year.Today, the maximum permissible dose of a radioactive substance is one-tenth microcurie.Sama Marie Curie died of radiation exposure caused by the disease in 1934.Since the half-life of radium is 1600 years old, her laboratory notebooks are considered too dangerous to touch them, even now.Radium continued to use for painting clock dials until 1968, but in a much more secure environment.
Photo source: npr.org
Articles Source: sakhmetkare.livejournal.com
