Society of the Living Dead

“It will put pink cheeks on you.”

That is what the managers of Radium Dial in Ottawa, Illinois, told the young women who painted radium on the faces of clock dials in the 1920s and 1930s. Instead, their teeth fell out and their jaws and bones disintegrated. Instead of putting pink in their cheeks, it put the women in their graves.

The company knew the hazards of working with radium, but they took no safety precautions. They lied to the workers and they denied compensation to the victims. To avoid financial liability, Radium Dial closed its doors and reopened a few blocks away as Luminous Processes and continued its deadly work for another forty years. Radium Dial cared more about the health and profitability of its company than they cared about the health of the women who made the company profitable.

There really was a “Society of the Living Dead,” formed by the women who were dying from radium poisoning. Their astounding true story is told here.