United States Radium Corporation Records; Guide to the

"From 1917 to 1926, the U.S. Radium Corporation was located at the intersection of High and Alden Streets in Orange, New Jersey. Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky and Dr. George S. Willis founded the company in 1917. The primary activity at the U.S. Radium Corporation was the extraction and purification of radium from carnotite ore to produce luminous paints, which were produced under the brand name Undark. The plant employed over a hundred workers, mainly women, to paint radium lighted watches and instruments.

During World War I, the U.S. Radium Corporation was a major supplier of luminous watches to the military. However, a major setback for the Corporation occurred when a number of dial painters died from whata ppeared to be a variety of unrelated health causes. It was later learned that the deaths were due to radiation contamination associated with exposure to radium, one of the prime ingredients of the luminescent paint. A major route of exposure was ingestion, as the dial painters used their mouths to form a point on the radium-tainted paintbrushes, enabling them to paint the small numbers on the watches."

(Source: Revised Work Plan, Volume 1 of 2, U.S. Radium Site, City of Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.Remedial Planning Activities at Selected Uncontrolled Hazardous Substance Disposal Sites USEPA RegionII (NY, NJ, PR, VI). White Plains, NY: Malcom Pirnie, Inc., 1990, pp. 2-4 to 2-5.)

Harrison S. Martland, MD (1883-1954), chief medical examiner for Essex County, New Jersey, was instrumental in recognizing the cause of death in the dial painters. Dr. Martland measured the radioactivity in dial painters' bodies and in 1925, published the information connecting their bone disease and aplastic anemias with radium.