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Radium Girls, Way to Die #196, is the fourth death featured in "Cure for the Common Death, Part I", which aired on March 22, 2009.
Plot[]
In the 1920s, Wendy and a group of women work at a factory that uses paint containing radium to create fluorescent watch faces. Wendy and the women notice that the paint also glows when applied to their skin. They eventually expose themselves to huge amounts of radiation after repeated applications (mostly using the radioactive paint as glow-in-the-dark body paint for their lovers during sex). Wendy was one of the first women to die from bone cancer, and six of her surviving colleagues joined together and filed one of the first successful workers' rights lawsuits against the company and won, leading to increased safety standards in American workplaces.
"It turns out the company knew all along about the harmful effects of radium, yet they allowed the girls to ingest it daily."
Transcript[]
(Waiting for a New Brain is playing)
Narrator: In the 1920s, women were often hired to perform tasks,
(Female workers chatting)
Narrator: deemed too delicate or menial for men. That's how Wendy got hired onto an all-female work crew at radium corporation.
(Baroque Death is playing)
Narrator: A New Jersey company that made military watches and clocks. Wendy and her co-workers were given the job of painting the numerals on watch faces.
(One of the co-workers puts the paint on the tongue)
Narrator: They used a new kind of paint called undark.
Dr. Kim Henderson: The... glow in the dark fluid that they were using to paint, the faces and watch, the reason why it glows, it's because it's radioactive and its compound called radium... What causes problems and for this...woman... is that she probably ingested it...
(Wendy also puts the paint on her lips, so do other co-workers)
Narrator: This kind of detail work was exacting. To keep the tip of their paint brushes pointed, the ladies were told to wipe excess paint off on their lips. The radium girls discovered undark had a hidden benefit.
Wendy: Lips lick can lips.
(Wendy's lips glow, so does the co-worker's finger)
Narrator: They can apply each other and literally make themselves radiate.
Dr. Kim Henderson: Once it's in the body, it mimics calcium. And so your body accorporates into bone... and so a lot of these women ended up getting bone cancer. But it'll also cause damage...anywhere that it...came in contact, if they were ingesting it, they will cause damage in the stomach, the intestines, the throat, the tongue, mouth...
(Wendy arrives at home from work, turns off the light to show her husband how glowing she is)
Narrator: Wendy thought it would be fun to use her new look. To light up her sex life.
Wendy: Uh-huh? Is it kinda sexy?
Wendy's Husband: Won't you get over here, little glow worm?
Wendy: (Giggles)
(Wendy is ready to make out)
Narrator: Numerous times, Wendy and her husband played peek-a-boo with the magic paint. But before long, they realized that something about this cutting-edge technology, was making Wendy bleed, in the most bizarre places.
(CGI bone is radioactive, which causes to the bone cancer as the radium grows)
Dr. Kim Henderson: Radiation... causes DNA damage and caused mutation, and that's why... when...the radium is accorporate to bone, it has a long time... to Seburn damage, the soft tissue there inside the bone, and that can lead to cancer to bone cancer.
(What goes up is playing, Wendy and her co-workers' body are all glowing)
Narrator: It turns out the company knew all along about the harmful effects of radium, yet they allowed the girls to ingest it daily.
(Later, Wendy in the bed, bald which is a sign of cancer)
Narrator: Wendy was one of the first to die.
(Replay of Wendy and her co-worker glowing)
Narrator: But 6 of her colleagues banded together in the first successful worker's rights lawsuit. Overcoming years of denial and foul play, the Radium Girls lead to higher safety standards across America.
(Wendy dies from bone cancer)
Cast and Interviewees[]
- Marion Kerr - Wendy (Lead; Intended victim)
- Christine Mulhern - Radium Co-Worker
- Christopher Whalen (I) - Wendy's Husband
- Georgia Reed (I) - Radium Co-Worker
- Dr. Kim Henderson - Herself (Toxicologist)
Trivia[]
- Based on a real story about Radium Girls from 1917 to 1926. This incident caused hundreds or even thousands of workers to die.
- This also makes this death the highest consecutive death in a story.
- This death is similar to Glow Job (which aired 18 episodes later). However the victim was guilty. This victim was innocent.
- This death takes place 89 years before Gas Holed (278).
Foreign Names[]
- Jóvenes Radioactivas (Radioactive Young Girls) - Latin American Spanish dub
- Muchachas Radiactivas (Radioactive Girls) - European Spanish dub
- Chicas de Radium (Radium Girls) - Mexican Spanish dub
- Promienne dziewczyny (Radiant Girls) - Polish voice-over/pistolet natryskowy (paint prayer)-polish dub
- Tödliches Leuchten (Deadly Glow) - German dub
- Pictor de luminā (painter of light)-romanian dub
- Yoru no gaka (Painter of the night)-Japanese dub
- Pientio gyda thro (painting with a twist) -welsh dub
- Risikabel forretning (risky business)-danish dub
Gallery[]
