A bittersweet victory

So, happy days, yes? The women won the lawsuit, the government banned the use of radium in medical and household products, and the radium craze came to an end.

Well, not quite.

There was still no cure for radioactive poisoning and all the women who fought and won their battles in the courtroom lost the ultimate battle for their lives very soon after.

Catherine Donohue lying on her death bed surrounded by friends and family

The win was not for them, though. It was for all the women after them who were spared their grisly fates.

Out of tragedy, change

As human history shows us again and again, it often takes massive scandal and suffering for true and lasting change to take hold.

Just as the 146 workers who burned to death in the Manhattan Triangle Fire triggered the creation of workers' unions, so the 70 women who rotted from the inside out were the direct cause of the foundation of the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Today, OSHA has hundreds of law and regulations on the books to protect all workers from hazardous conditions and fight on behalf of those who are taken advantage of or placed in dangerous environments. They encourage workers to file complaints and protect workers from unlawful termination or repercussions for reporting their employers for violating their right to safety and OSHA rules.