The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium dials – watch dials and hands with self-luminous paint. The incidents occurred at three factories in the United States: one in Orange, New Jersey, beginning around 1917; one in Ottawa, Illinois, beginning in the early 1920s; and one in Waterbury, Connecticut, also in the 1920s.
Radium painters working in a factory
Former factory site in West Orange, New Jersey
Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation such as alpha particles, beta particles, or gamma rays. Radioluminescence is used as a low level light source for night illumination of instruments or signage. Radioluminescent paint is occasionally used for clock hands and instrument dials, enabling them to be read in the dark. Radioluminescence is also sometimes seen around high-power radiation sources, such as nuclear reactors and radioisotopes.
Radioluminescent 1.8-curie (67 GBq) 6-by-0.2-inch (152.4 mm × 5.1 mm) tritium vial used as a light source. It consists of a sealed glass tube containing radioactive tritium gas whose inner surfaces are coated with a phosphor.
A 1950s radium clock, exposed to ultraviolet light to increase luminescence
Self-luminous white radium paint on the face and hand of an old clock.
Watch face illuminated by tritium tubes