Radioactive quackery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"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 (the industrialist Eben Byers was poisoned by it)
• Many brands of toothpaste were laced with radium that was claimed to make teeth shine whiter
• 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

This medical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.