Amelia Maggia Research Paper

In the early 20th century, mysterious cases of women dropping like flies sparked an interest in the forensics world. One case in particular, the death of Amelia Maggia, in which her death would be solved five years later. During WWI, Amelia Maggia began to work at a radium-dial factory at eighteen to support her parents. The factory used radium paint for the watches, as it helped the soldiers on the battlefield see the time without being caught by the enemy. Soldiers would open their watches to read the time, with the radium emitting a luminescent glow. Soon after the war, Radium was popularized in the 1920s where girls in the factory used radium paint for their hair, teeth, and nails. After Amelia quit her job at the radium factory, she began …show more content…
When the dentist started palpating the area, he did not expect that Maggia’s lower jaw would disintegrate. On September 12, 1922, Amelia Maggia died at the age of 25 due to unknown circumstances. Coroners weren’t sure what to make of her death, so they ruled it a syphilis-related death. By 1925, there were more cases of girls who worked at the radium factory who showed the same signs as Amelia Maggia by the time they left their job. These girls had the exact same symptoms of anemia, ulcers, tumors, and decaying bones. Local medical examiner, Harrison Martland, was convinced that the radium was the sole suspect in the girls’ deaths. In the fall of 1927, Martland asked Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler to examine the deaths of the factory girls. Gettler then devised a test to find radium in human remains. Amelia Maggia’s body was exhumed, covered in x-ray sheets, and left alone for a few days. The results eventually showed that radium was still in her bones even after five years of her death. Radium got into their system through the consumption of the radium paint, the girls had to constantly lick the paintbrushes to make a fine point for painting the watches at the …show more content…
Scientific discoveries were slowly being accepted by the general public as time went on. Thus, Amelia Maggia’s death was the kickstart to call for the need for radiation safety measures. When consumed, radium can have detrimental effects on the human body. Radium can be consumed or inhaled. Rare cases involve radiation emitting radiation which can enter the body. Within the body, radium can increase the risk for bone cancer, anemia, cataracts, broken teeth, reduced bone growth, bone decay, toothache, ulcers, and hemorrhage (Commonwealth of Massachusetts). In addition, exposure to radium may cause hair, skin, teeth, and clothes to glow. Radium can stay in the body for months to a lifetime, until it enters your bloodstream. It especially accumulates in the bones as the body mistakens radium for calcium. Normally, the body immediately puts calcium into the bones to support the bones. Radium has a similar composition to calcium, so the body will mistake radium for the latter in the bones. Thus, the bones will slowly decay due to the accumulation of radium. In other cases, the consumption of radium can be easily passed into the body through fecal

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Amelia Maggia Research Paper