Plot

Industrial tragedy in 1920s Ottawa exposes radium poisoning of female workers who licked paintbrushes. Interviews with survivors detail their medical ordeals and struggle for justice amid bureaucracy and uncertainty over the death toll.

This documentary concerns the women who fell victim to radium poisoning in Ottawa, Illinois during the 1920s. The women worked painting radium on the dials of clocks and would wet the tips of the paintbrushes with their tongues. Interviews with survivors from the industrial tragedy relate their experiences of the poisoning and the bureaucratic nightmare they were forced to contend with in seeking compensation and justice. Environmental concerns are raised, but the ambiguity surrounding the death toll is evident by a lack of death certificates and medical opinions. The feature relies on the sympathy the viewer feels for the victims of the preventable tragedy.

Tells the story of young women hired for the prestigious jobs during depression, sometimes supporting their families, of painting glow in the dark clock faces using their fine painting skills while licking the paint brushes with their tongues to get a fine edge. They all later died of horrendous cancers as the paint was radioactive.

awful video, looks like it was recorded on a Sears camcorder, cheesy subtitles, soundtrack that was like a nine year old playing with a synthesizer for the first time.