Description: They were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint at the United States Radium factory in Orange, NJ, around 1917. There were similar factories in Illinois and Connecticutt. The women, who had been told the paint was harmless, ingested deadly amounts of radium by licking their paintbrushes to sharpen them; some also painted their fingernails and teeth with the glowing substance. Five of the women challenged their employer in a case that established the right of individual workers who contract occupational diseases to sue their employers.
