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2. The Radium Girls
In yet another case of corporate negligence and cruelty, the radium girls of the US Radium Corporation paid the ultimate price for the profits of their bosses. Starting in the 1910s and continuing through the 1920s, female workers, many of whom were from lower social standing, were hired to paint newly discovered radium pigment onto watch and clock dials, which allowed the numbers to be seen in the dark.
The job paid exceptionally well, especially for women of lower social ranks, and was a highly glamorous and desirable job. Radium was seen, at the time, as borderline miraculous so women would often paint their lips or eyes with the radium pigment before significant dates. Tragically, the women were never told how toxic radium was, and the company knowingly falsified and denied the evidence of the toxicity.
Even after countless radium girls had died of cancer, anemia, and other disfiguring and painful ailments the US Radium Corporation continued to deny their responsibility and also tried to suggest that the girls had all died of syphilis. Eventually, the truth won out in court, and the girls and their families were compensated, but not before far too many bright-eyed young women had died young from their mouths and jaws literally rotting away.