BAY ST. LOUIS -When physicists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium in 1898 in France, people were fascinated by its power and glow.

Even today, the unit used to measure radioactivity is called a "curie."

At the turn of the last century, people believed it was a magical cure-all. Although some researchers had documented the dangers of radium, it was sold for medicinal purposes.

Then, in the 1920s, came the saga of the glow-in-the-dark girls.

About 70 women, many of them young, went to work at a radium factory in New Jersey. Attracted by easy work and high wages, these women painted the luminous numbers on wristwatches designed for soldiers involved in trench warfare during World War I. After the war, the wristwatches became a consumer fad.

The paint contained radium mixed with other elements.

When their paintbrushes lost their shape, the women were taught to put the brushes in their mouths and use their lips to make a point.

Told that the radium would put a glow in their cheeks, they painted their clothing, fingernails and even their teeth, enabling a smile that glowed in the dark. Even though their handkerchiefs glowed in the dark after some of them blew their noses, they believed the paint was harmless.

After several years of painting dials, some women's teeth started falling out and their jaws developed painful abscesses. By the end of the 1920s, many of them died from symptoms associated with radium poisoning.

Recognition of radium poisoning took years of efforts by the women and workers advocates.

The tragic illnesses and deaths of these women led to crucial discoveries in radiobiology and contributed to the establishment of standards for the level of exposure to radiation in the workplace.