One of the most important themes of the book surrounds typical American business practices in the years 1910–1935. At its core, The Radium Girls tells the stories of young women at the mercy of unscrupulous employers who knew they would die. Above all else, The United States Radium Corporation and Radiant Dial favored their own business success over the rights of their workers. They suppressed the studies that would have protected their workers’ health and safety. Clearly, the well-being of employees was not at the forefront of the radium companies’ practices. This may remind readers of other shady business practices from the same time period. Meat packing plants, for instance, placed workers in unsanitary conditions and produced questionable products. The goal of the average American corporation, especially during World War I, was to make a profit without regard to how said profit was earned. Thus, business practices encompass only the company’s well-being—and certainly not those interfacing directly with toxic material.

The Radium Girls explores the concept of exploitation of workers in American factories before adequate health and safety laws. The workers are exploited by The United States Radium Corporation and Radiant Dial; they work without any kind of protection and eventually become ill and even die from radium poisoning. They are repeatedly lied to and misled, with their concerns pushed aside regularly. The radium companies routinely ensured the women in their employment that radium was completely safe. That being said, the higher-ups in these companies and scientists were careful to keep their distance from the radium whilst encouraging the “radium girls” to continue ingesting the substance. The workers were forced to work in dangerous conditions unbeknownst to them. They were exploited for the sake of the work. Of course, when the lawsuits began to spring up, justice was retroactively served for the horrific effects of the lethal labor conditions. The workers were forced to endure their lives as forever impacted by radium, completely unaware of the negatives until it was much too late.

The companies knew about the dangers before they let the workers know. This means that more people got sick and died than would have if they'd been honest and protected the workers. At one point, one of the companies knows that the women are dying and begins predicting what order they'll die in. To make an already terrible situation worse, the company does not even let them know it is happening. Their lives are discussed by the company as if they as individuals have no stakes in their own health. The system fails them even when it is known that the company took advantage of them and that their conditions—and deaths—are ultimately due to radium poisoning. Though it wasn't known in the past that radium was dangerous, the fact of its danger was eventually discovered. The system fails the women for a long time by not compensating them for their illnesses through the machinations of less-than-honest people like lawyers and doctors. Eventually, though, their struggle becomes part of the path that gives other workers legal protections.

The workers are exploited by The United States Radium Corporation and Radiant Dial; they work without any kind of protection and eventually become ill and even die from the radium poisoning. The companies knew about the dangers before they let the workers know which means that more people got sick and died than would have if they'd been honest and protected the workers. At one point, one of the companies knows that the women are dying, is predicting what order they'll die in, and doesn't even let them know it's happening.