A century ago, glow-in-the-dark watches were an irresistible novelty. The dials, covered in a special luminous paint, shone all the time and didn’t require charging in sunlight. It looked like magic.

Glowing hands shouldn’t be an occupational hazard, argue the women of These Shining Lives — nor should radium poisoning. This play chronicles the true story of four women who sought well-paid work at ...

Cue Zero Theatre Company opens its fourth season with “Radium Girls,” a drama about commercial trends that played a part in industrial poisoning. In 1926, luminous watch faces were all the rage, but ...

The town of Ottawa, Ill., is banding together to honor the memories of watch dial painters who were poisoned by a radium paint in the town during the 1920s and 1930s. Piller’s father, William, is a ...

In the 1910s, hundreds of young women were hired to paint glowing watch dials with a new miracle substance — radium. They ...

A century ago, radium in scant quantities was thought to be healthful. People sipped it diluted in water and applied makeup made with it. They consumed milk and butter laced with it and brushed their ...

Removal of radioactive World War II dials in eight acres of storage warehouses in Columbia, Marietta, Maytown and Mount Joy could cost nearly $2 million, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection ...

Editor's note, Jan. 15, 2015: Mae Keane was one of the last "radium girls," but not the last one. Please scroll down to the bottom of this page to see the full correction note. Before turning the page ...

On New Year's Eve a few minutes before midnight I finished reading the book, "Deadly Glow -- The Radium Dial Worker Tragedy," by Ross Mullner. Minutes later as people in Peru, Ill., began celebrating, ...