Radioactive quackery

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"Tho-radia powder, based on radium and thorium, according to the formula of Dr Alfred Curie"...

Radioactive quackery refers to various products sold during the early 20th century, after the discovery of radioactivity, which promised radioactivity as a cure for various ills. It is now well known that radioactivity can actually be harmful and cause, among other things, cancer.

[edit] Notable examples

• Radithor: A solution of radium salts claimed to have curative properties.
• Many brands of toothpaste were laced with radium to make teeth shine whiter.
• Eben Byers, dead from using Radithor.
• Bath waters were advertised as being "highly radioactive"
• "Radioactive pens"

[edit] See also

• Electrical quackery
• Snake oil
• Quackery

[edit] External links

• "Living with Radiation", book on the subject
• Radioactive Quack Cures
• Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie, by Barbara Goldsmith
• (French) L’histoire étonnante du Tho-Radia, by Thierry Lefebvre and Cécile Raynal

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