Radioactive quackery
"Tho-radia" powder, based on radium and thorium, according to the formula of Dr. Alfred Curie (not related to Pierre and Marie Curie)
A Borjomi mineral water ad from 1929, advertising the water as "radioactive". The water is still popular today, but said property is no longer emphasized.
Radioactive quackery refers to various products sold during the early 20th century containing radioactive ingredients, after the discovery in 1896 of radioactive decay. The products promised radioactivity as a cure for various illnesses.[1]
Notable examples
- Radithor, a solution of radium salts, which was claimed by its developer William J. A. Bailey to have curative properties. The industrialist Eben Byers died in 1932 from ingesting it in large quantities throughout 1927-1930.[2][3]
- Many brands of toothpaste were laced with radioactive substances that was claimed to make teeth shine whiter, such as Doramad Radioactive Toothpaste.[4]
- Bath and bathing waters were advertised positively as being "highly radioactive" and with a "curative value", e.g. in a New Zealand Thames Star Supplement report from 1912.
- Revigator pots, which added radon to drinking water.[1]
- Uranium sand houses, where patients would sit on benches in a round room that had a floor composed of mildly radioactive sand (usually beach sand with crushed minerals like Carnotite). Popular in Utah, New Mexico and Colorado during the 1950s.[5]
References
- ^ a b Gray, Theodore (August 2004). "For That Healthy Glow, Drink Radiation!". Popular Science (Bonnier Corporation) 265 (2): 28. ISSN 0161-7370.
- ^ Journal of the American Medical Association (American Medical Association) 264 (1): 617.
- ^ Goldsmith, Barbara (2005). Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 119–120. ISBN 0-393-05137-4.
- ^ Matricon, Jean; Waysand, G. (2003). The Cold Wars: A History of Superconductivity. Rutgers University Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-8135-3295-7.
- ^ Seff, Philip; Seff, Nancy R. (1996). Petrified lightning and more amazing stories from "Our fascinating earth". Chicago, Ill.: Contemporary Books. p. 18. ISBN 0-8092-3250-2.
External links
- "Living with Radiation", book on the subject
- Radioactive Quack Cures
- L’histoire étonnante du Tho-Radia, by Thierry Lefebvre and Cécile Raynal (French)
- Radioactive Quack Cures at the Museum of Oak Ridge Associated Universities
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