United States Radium Corporation - Immediate Aftermath

Immediate Aftermath

The chief medical examiner of Essex County, New Jersey published a report in 1925 that identified the radioactive material the women had ingested as the cause of their bone disease and aplastic anemia, and ultimately death.

Illness and death resulting from ingestion of radium paint and the subsequent legal action taken by the women forced closure of the company's Orange facility in 1927. The case was settled out of court in 1928, but not before a substantial number of the litigants were seriously ill or had died from bone cancer and other radiation-related illnesses. The company, it was alleged, were taking too much time to settle the litigation on purpose, leading to further deaths.

In November 1928, Dr. von Sochocky, the inventor of the radium-based paint, died of aplastic anemia resulting from his exposure to the radioactive material, "a victim of his own invention."

The victims were so contaminated that radiation can still be detected at their graves, using a Geiger counter.

The new worker safety laws in the wake of the lawsuit resulted in safety procedures and training for dial painters. Even though radium paint was used extensively during World War II, and was not discontinued until the late 1960s, no more dial painters suffered radium sickness, thus demonstrating how easily preventable the plight of the "Radium Girls" was.