“Girls Who Glow”, a play, written by Ginny Mohler, Yorktown HS (’06), will be presented at 7 pm, Thursday, February 11, 2016, followed by a talkback with Ms. Mohler. Free admission – all are welcome! Sponsored by the Arlington and Falls Church chapters of the League of Women Voters and the Arlington branch AAUW. Information: marj.signer@gmail.com.

It is a story based on an historical tragedy that is useful as a framework for discussing modern-day health, safety and consumer issues. During the early 20th century, teenage girls were hired by several U.S. companies to paint watches to make them glow in the dark for use in war. The paint was made with radium, known at the time by scientists to be toxic, particularly because girls were encourage to lick the brushes to maintain fine points and thus ingested the paint.

The truth about the radium-laden paint’s dangers was hidden for many years, as the companies profited from the glowing watches and other radium-containing products. Hundreds of young girls fell ill and many died from cancers caused by the paint. Six of these desperately ill girls sued U.S. Radium Corp. for poisoning them. In the face of an increasing public outcry,, the company settled and the Radium girls were left with meager settlements and lives cut short by the toxic paint.