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Once the symptoms of radium jaw take effect, there is nothing that can be done to reduce the chance of death from radiation poisoning. Radium can cause fatal injuries due to radium and calcium sharing similar chemistry, causing the body to mistake the radioactive metal for calcium and incorporate it into bone tissue.
The inventor of radium dial paint, Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky, died in November 1928, becoming the 16th known victim of poisoning by radium dial paint. He had gotten sick from radium in his hands, not the jaw, but the circumstances of his death helped the Radium Girls in court. [17]
Grace Fryer (14 March 1899 – 27 October 1933) [1] was an American dial painter and Radium Girl, [2] who sued U.S. Radium after suffering radium poisoning while employed painting watch faces. [3] Subsequently, joined by fellow workers Quinta McDonald, Albina Larice, Edna Hussman, and Katherine Schaub, Fryer brought a suit labelled in the media ...
In 1917, glow-in-the-dark watches were all the rage. But the girls who painted them with radioactive paint weren’t told how dangerous it was.
Early symptoms of ARS typically include nausea, vomiting, headaches, fatigue, fever, and a short period of skin reddening. [3] These symptoms may occur at radiation doses as low as 0.35 grays (35 rad). These symptoms are common to many illnesses, and may not, by themselves, indicate acute radiation sickness. [3]
Perhaps Blum is best remembered and most often referenced with respect to his diagnosis of “radium jaw” in a patient that worked as a watch-dial painter in which radium was used to achieve a glow. The story is told in the book The Radium Girls (2016) which includes descriptions of Blum's role. [20]
Radiation poisoning isn’t immediate, so it took a while for symptoms to occur. But eventually, the women started to experience tooth loss, hips locking into place and skin that wouldn’t heal.
The dangers of radium were recognized in the early 1920s and first described in 1924 by New York dentist and oral surgeon Theodor Blum (1883-1962). [100] He was particularly aware of the use of radium in the watch industry, where it was used for luminous dials. He published an article on the clinical picture of the so-called radium jaw.