The Glow That Followed Them to the Grave

In the early 1900s, young women known as the Radium Girls worked in factories painting watch dials with luminous radium paint. To keep their brushes sharp, they were instructed to shape the tips with their lips—unknowingly swallowing tiny amounts of radioactive material every day.

At first, the job seemed almost magical. Their clothes shimmered in the dark. Some even painted their nails or teeth for fun, glowing like living lanterns at night. But the glow came at a terrible cost.

Soon, their jaws began to ache and rot. Teeth fell out. Bones weakened and crumbled. Doctors were baffled at first, but the truth was far worse than anyone imagined—the radium had lodged inside their bodies, slowly poisoning them from within.

The companies tried to deny responsibility, but a few brave women fought back, bringing lawsuits that helped establish modern workplace safety laws.

Long after the factories closed, some of their graves were said to faintly register radiation. Even in death, the glow never completely left them.