103 workers.12 This victory set a precedent for workers compensation and protection that has had a lasting effect today and their suffering was not in vain. It led to new standards in worker protection and occupational safety. However, the company did not just harm these women, but also the environment. The Radium Dial Company was built in an old high school in the middle of Ottawa, overlooking the Fox River. Eventually they went out of business and the founder of the Radium Dial Company founded a new company called Luminous Processes just a few miles away.11 After the Radium Dial Company went out of business the building became a meatpacking plant, and then home to the Farm Bureau, Farm Supply, Home Bureau, Ag Soil Conservation Association, IAA Insurance, FB Soil Testing Service, Breeding Cooperative, Ottawa PCA, Ottawa National Farm Loan Association, Illinois State Employment Service and the Ottawa Women's Club.13 Nobody spoke up about the hazards of using radioactive sites, especially for food processing. The building was finally demolished in 1968, but the radioactivity danger lived on. Rubble from the site was as fill and construction material throughout the whole city, scattering radioactive debris across Ottawa. The second company, Luminous Processes, was in operation painting radium dials until 1978 and once again this building too was used for food, becoming a meat storage locker.14 In the late 70s the state discovered the radiation hazard posed by the luminous processes site from a state trooper’s Geiger counter.15 In 1981 it was placed on the EPA’s toxic waste site list but little was done other than erecting a few fences around the 12 [Newspaper Clipping Letter Images] "Courtesy Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Libraries", MS113. 13 Ridings and Hustis, "Did Radioactivity Hit Meat?" 14 Stewart, Ian, "The Human and Environmental Impact of the Radium Dial-Painting Industry" (2012). Honors Capstones. 1195. https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/studentengagement-honorscapstones/1195 15 The Daily Times, "New Device Used to Monitor Radiation," February 9, 1979.
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