My name is may keen. I was the last radium girl. My coworkers, closest friends, passed away from radium poisoning. Radium paint was commercially produced in america for the first time. A year later the u. S. Ram corporation was founded in orange, new jersey. They began producing radium paints and radium products for their businesses. During world war i, 95 of radium was used for military purposes but a small amount was being made into fashionable products such as shampoo, facial cosmetics, quloclothes, watches was even being added to water. It began to spread all over america because of a polish scientist who discovered radium while working with radioactive elements in pursuit of her doctorate degree. Both experimented with the physiological effects and were soon working as physicians to develop new miedical uses for this new development. The u. S. Produced 80 of the worlds radium. Radium Companies Began to spread all over america. But the one im going to talk about today is the u. S. Ram corporation i mentioned earlier. After world war i, factories needed more workers due to all the men in war. So they had begun to hire young women. This is where our story begins. In the early 1920s with my fellow coworkers from the u. S. Radium corporation. We were asked to lick the tip of our watches to make the finest point possible for watches. Licking the point of the brushes helped to paint the tiny numbers on the dial. It was being used in warships, airplanes, compassesing and watches. Soon, almost every American Voter had a watch. We noticed a strange glow coming from our clothes and mouths. It was magical at first. We never had something that could glow in the dark on its own. This not only fascinated us but fascinated the rest of america. The women and i began to wear our finest clothes to work so we could paint in them to go dancing after our shifts were over. The women and i began to paint our hair and teeth. Always said, the scientific history of radium. Beautiful. Now, at the time we didnt realize the consequences or actions would have as we paint our clothes, teeth, and licking our brushes. Soon we began to develop painful symptoms. Maries husband, pierre, even doubts, himself, about the element when speaking with the creator of radium paint, he would not trust himself in a kilo with pure radium, burn the skin off his body, destroy his eyesight and probably kill him. Our understanding of the dangers of radium began with one of our coworkers, molly, and what was thought to be a simple she decided to visit a dentist who began treating her but she continued to have pain not only in her teeth but in her body, too. She even visited a physician who tested her for other medical conditions but she had none. Molly went back to her dentist, soon realized her job was he wound up removing the teeth. The continued treatment. Molly passed away at the age of 25. We never questioned that mollys death by it that it wasnt true just because it was written on her death certificate that she died from the disease. A second woman named eileen rudolph died of necrosis of the jaw. We decided to take up our concern with the Vice President of the u. S. Radium corporation at the time, arthur rhoder, agreed to bring in a doctor to examine all the women and our work area. The doctor and physician, alice hamilton, examined all the women who worked with radium. The doctor wanted to report about unsafe work conditions, stating in his original report the conclusion to us seems inevitable that if the undark radium point is a source of dust, the dust doesnt necessarily contain radium. After doctor found out the u. S. Radium corporation falsified his words, he published his own version of the report. We only saw the revised version of that report so we continued our work painting the dials believing we were fine until a journal article was published by dr. Theodore bloom about a term called radium withdrawal. The article stated the history of the particular patient is so evident that theres no doubt in my mind as to the responsibility of the u. S. Radium corporation. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find out what chemicals theyre using. Which, however, was caused by some radioactive substance used in the manufacturer of dials for watches. The condition has been termed radium jaw. After this journal article was written, more doctors began to find the true effect of ingesting radium such as anemia, cataracts, factturactured teeth ovarian cancer, tumors and hollowed out bones. Approximately 600 women became infertile. Even i became sick with radium necrosis and so did grace. I rounded up four other women exhibiting symptoms to fight. Along with our attorney, who is convinced by the National Consumers league to join us, Raymond Barry. I was not with the women during their Court Appearance because i ended up being fired for not following orders to lick the radiumbased paint brushes. It was gritty and had a bad taste. This saved my life from all the illnesses the girls were getting sick with or dying from. May 18th, 1927, i went with the four other women and our attorney Raymond Barry for court to ask for 250,000 each. 2 this settlement ends up awarding us 10,000 each and 600 per year until our deaths by the u. S. Radium corporation. I remember what our attorney, Raymond Barry, told me, when you have heard youre going to die and theres no hope, every newspaper you pick up prints to what really amounts to your obituary. Theres nothing else. Even though radium poisoning took over our physical health, we thought i couldnt even take the oath. Grace had to wear a brace on her back. To oawo other women who alsod the u. S. Radium corporation for injury in 1935 winning their battles at well. Catherine ended up being awarded two times the amount of money from her employer giving her about 10,000. October 27th, 1933. I died at the age of 34 from ovarian cancer. Even after the settlement was given to my family and the families of the other victims, ka it can never replace what we lost. We suffered cancers, mutilations of cells and infertility. The factory in which we worked was torn down in 19 68. Nothing stands there today other than a pile of contaminated rubble that will be that way for the next 1 rkds 1600 years. I died of raid youm poidium n my right leg. The tragedy due to our deaths was one of the reasons Occupational Safety and Health Administration known as osha and illinois occupational Disease Corporation created by alice hamilton, one of the first physicians to believe in us and our story. Even the fair labor standards act of 1938 was passed. This law states children 14 through 17 are legally alloweded to work but cannot work in areas that are hazardous to their health or welfare. Some of us were possible 14 when we began working with radium. Another act was also passed called the osha act of 197 0. This allows factory workers to file a complaint against their employer, request an inspection from osha. Safety Companies Like the new Jersey Department of labor and safety acts like tease are the power of our triumph. They make sure men and women are safe in the work area when working with dangerous chemicals. Although my death was not directly caused by radium poisoning, throughout my life i suffered from colon cancer, lung cancer and losing all my teeth by my 30s. We persevered through employers denying our claims, lawyers refusing to take our case and many doctors misdiagnosing us. We represent the women poisoning. We represent the women who fought against big corp races and won. We represent the women who helped make a change in workers rights. We are the radium women. [ applause ] can you tell me your names . Im olivia van lancker. Im bethany madden, i play grace. Im Carol Van Lancker and played catherine. Radium girls, how did you come up that . Actually i got it from a Family Member who saw it an facebook. We did further research into our project and felt like it was a great fit for this years topic pb. As you did your research, what were your thoughts . Was this surprising to you . What was most surprising to me when you found out these women were being very ignored and when they were being pushed down and not being believed that day were dying from radium, men were being believed and once they started getting skik th it started being more concerned. Our men are getting hurt, now we need to be more worried because we trust the men and not the with im. Also because they were so naive, too. They started at 14 and never realized, oh, this is hurting me. I even learned there was some doctors who were paid to tell them they were fine. Since like i said, the girls were naive, they believed them and kept working because it gave them good pay. So how hard was it to write this all into a tenminute performance . What was that process like . It was very hard. We had to do a lot of narrowing down and a lot of cutting of information that we really did want to add, but we just picked out the most important parts that we thought would fit best with our story. With our characters and our timeline. We wanted it make it more realistic and part of a play, not so fantasized that people werent getting to the point that this was a reallifehappen where are you from and tell me about your school. Were from ralston, nebraska. Im an eighth grader going into my freshman year. Theyre seventh graders going into their eighth grade year. I was the first performance in ral skr ralston to ever happen. I advanced on to state my first year. We kind of came and joined her this year when she said im doing a performance, we thought that was super cool. So both of us weve both done some sort of theater, so as bethany, kind of all Work Together and i think it can help balance us out this year to get us here. So finally, why do you think its important for people your age to know about the radium girls . I personally think its important because when you think about it, these women were a small part of World History and didnt have much of a safe. As you go throughout learning them, you realize everybody has a voice, everybody has a right to say what they want to say. Nobody should be defiled down to someone theyre not. Im going to add on to that, it also shows that, like, Little People can do big things because i know a lot of people say, oh, im just 14, i cant do anything about it, but these women were very young. They were in their 20s, their early 20s and they fought against a whole corporation for working endangerment. Without this, kind of like cause and effect situation, i would say, because of this situation thats happened with the dangers of working in their working area, it led to all these labor lays and safety acts that protect us now. So without this, and these women standing up for themselves, improi proving all those people wrong, we wouldnt have the acts and laws we do today. Thank you very much. Thank you. All week were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Lectures in history. American artifacts. Reel america. The civil war. Oral histories. The presidency. And special event coverage about our nations history. Enjoy American History tv now and every weekend on cspan3. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, a look at world war ii. We begin with High School Teacher karen kabana on food rations during the war and innovations tht led to modern day processed food. She discussed wartime policies dealing with farm labor shortages and food rationing on the hoec home front. Quau watch American History tv starting at 28 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. Sunday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, washington journal and American History tv live special call. In program looking back at woodstock, 1969 culture and musical phenomenon. Historian david farber, author of the book the age of great dreams america in the 1960s joins us to take your calls. Drugs matter. Who takes the drugs and why they have the effect they did in the 60s and early 70s is something were the history of drugs, have david courtwright, other people who thought long and hard about this, is imperative of an understanding not just of the 60s but the production of history. What drugs we use in a period and place have an incredible ability to change the direction of a given society. Call in to talk with david farber about the social movements of the 660s leading p to woodstock and its legacy. Woodstock 50 years sunday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspans washington journal, also live on American History tv on cspan3. American history tv products are now available at the new cspan online store. Go to cspanstore. Org to see whats new for American History tv and check out all of the cspan products. Cuyahoga river as most think of it, the brown stream that meets lake erie. An industrial waterway, its banks populated by steel mills and factories. Its channel filled with ships and tugs. Lake erie after a