FIGHTING BACK - THEY WERE TOLD TO LICK THE BRUSH: THE RADIUM GIRLS
Published: May 7, 2026
Duration: 18:39
The company knew. The scientists knew. The executives took precautions to protect themselves. And then they told two hundred young women the paint was perfectly safe.
Garret Fisher covers one of the most infuriating corporate cover-up stories in American history: the Radium Girls of Orange, New Jersey. Beginning in 1917, young women at the United States Radium Corporation were instructed to point their paintbrushes with their lips before dipping them in radium-laced paint — lip, dip, paint, hundreds of times a day. The company's own scientists wore lead shields and used tongs when handling the material. They told the workers it...
Garret Fisher covers one of the most infuriating corporate cover-up stories in American history: the Radium Girls of Orange, New Jersey. Beginning in 1917, young women at the United States Radium Corporation were instructed to point their paintbrushes with their lips before dipping them in radium-laced paint — lip, dip, paint, hundreds of times a day. The company's own scientists wore lead shields and used tongs when handling the material. They told the workers it...