The women radium dial painters as experimental subjects (1920-1990) or what counts as human experimentation.

Rentetzi M (2004)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2004

Journal

NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin Springer Verlag

Book Volume: 12

Pages Range: 233-248

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.1007/s00048-004-0201-3

Abstract

The case of women radium dial painters - women who tipped their brushes while painting the dials of watches and instruments with radioactive paint - has been extensively discussed in the medical and historical literature. Their painful and abhorrent deaths have occupied the interest of physicians, lawyers, politicians, military agencies, and the public. Hardly any discussion has concerned, however, the use of those women as experimental subjects in a number of epidemiological studies that took place from 1920 to 1990. This article addresses the neglected issue of human experimentation in relation to the radium dial painters. Although women's medical examinations have been classified as simple, routine measurements of radiation burden on the body and presented as a great offer to humanity, for more than fifty years those women had been repeatedly used as experimental subjects without proper consent. I argue that through this case it becomes obvious that the issue of defining what counts as human experimentation shifts from an epistemological to a serious ethical and political question, concerning the making of scientific knowledge while issues of gender related to this process are also discussed.

Authors with CRIS profile

Maria Rentetzi

Additional Organisation(s)

Lehrstuhl für Science, Technology and Gender Studies

Involved external institutions

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) / Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (MPIWG) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Rentetzi, M. (2004). The women radium dial painters as experimental subjects (1920-1990) or what counts as human experimentation. NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, 12(4), 233-248. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00048-004-0201-3

MLA:

Rentetzi, Maria. "The women radium dial painters as experimental subjects (1920-1990) or what counts as human experimentation." NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin 12.4 (2004): 233-248.

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