―――― Harmful Inaction ――――
Government Inaction
Dial-painters working in a factory (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Government health offices were seldom interested in maintaining safe industry conditions.
During the Radium Girl trials in 1928, Raymond Berry brought Lenore Young to testify to the disregard of the USDL towards the deaths of USRC dial-painters.
Berry
Radium Girls' Lawyer“Did you ever do anything with reference to injuries among workers at the plant of the United States Radium Corporation of Orange?” (Berry, Raymond "Raymond Berry Micro Film Reel 1")
Young
Orange NJ Health Officer
"Very little"
Young briefly investigated the “injuries among workers at the plant of the United States Radium Corporation... from necrosis of the jaw” (Berry, Raymond "Raymond Berry Micro Film Reel 1.")
(Brigham Young University)
“I looked up our death records, found that we had two cases in Orange... I got some history and found another girl in Orange had died”
“I gave this information back to the Department of Labor and told them that...the United States Department of Public Health Service be called in”
“The Department of Labor felt we did not have enough evidence and data to warrant calling the United States Public Health Service”
...In addition to three dial-painter deaths...
Radium Crystallization Laboratory, Orange NJ
(Weinstein, Gerald)
“The City of Orange had a suit pending against the Radium Company at the time I became Health Officer in Orange in regard to fumes they discharged”