![]() ![]() ![]() But more and more were getting sick."įinally, he said, a labor union in Marseilles raised $7,000 to pay for legal expenses, enough for the women to hire a Chicago lawyer. "In a town the size of Ottawa that would have been very embarrassing for the girls and their families," he said. "When they started dying, it was initially attributed to diphtheria, then typhus."Ĭompany officials warned that if the women pursued legal action, they would attribute the deaths to syphilis, he said. Two teenage sisters, Josephine played by Abby Quinn and Bessie Cavallo played by Joey King make their ends meet by working at the radium factory. Early in the 20th century, women work at the U.S. Radium Girls story is based in the 1920s where radium is advertised as a luminous substance with health benefits. "Company doctors would test them but wouldn't give them the results," Suppan said. Radium Girls Photos View all photos Movie Info. Officials later learned that when a person ingests radium, it goes right to the bones and destroys the marrow, he said.Īs the illnesses became more common, he said, women in Ottawa, as well as other cities, asked to be tested. The progression was slow, with death coming in two to three years, he said. Symptoms began in New Jersey, he said, with complaints of anemia, teeth falling out, bone fractures and tumors developing on jaws, hips and joints. ![]()
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