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A bottle of Radithor at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in New Mexico, United States. Radithor was a patent medicine that is a well-known example of radioactive quackery. It consisted of triple-distilled water containing at a minimum 1 microcurie (37 kBq) each of the radium-226 and 228 isotopes.
Radithor was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead" as well as "Perpetual Sunshine". [6] Radithor was a chronically lethal mixture, and was responsible for the death of Eben Byers in 1932, who died of radiation-induced cancer after drinking about 1,400 bottles of Radithor. [6] [7] Bailey also invented the Radiendocrinator around 1930.
For the persistent pain, a doctor suggested he take Radithor, a patent medicine manufactured by William J. A. Bailey. [5] Bailey was a Harvard University dropout who falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine and had become rich from the sale of Radithor, a solution of radium in water which he claimed stimulated the endocrine system.
A bottle of Radithor at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in New Mexico, United States. The disease was determined by pathologist Dr. H.S. Martland in 1924 to be symptomatic of radium paint ingestion, after many female workers from various radium paint companies reported similar dental and mandibular pain.
The water is still popular today, but said property is no longer emphasized. Radioactive quackery is quackery that improperly promotes radioactivity as a therapy for illnesses. Unlike radiotherapy , which is the scientifically sound use of radiation for the destruction of cells (usually cancer cells), quackery pseudo-scientifically promotes ...
Photo card dated 1931 depicting Jōhana radium spring, in what is now Nanto, Toyama Prefecture, Japan. The radium fad or radium craze of the early 20th century was an early form of radioactive quackery that resulted in widespread marketing of radium-infused products as being beneficial to health. [1]
Radithor was manufactured from 1918 to 1928 by the Bailey Radium Laboratories, Inc., of East Orange, New Jersey. The head of the laboratories was listed as Dr. William J. A. Bailey, not a medical doctor. [23] It was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead" [24] as well as "Perpetual Sunshine".
In 1932, a well-known industrialist, Eben Byers died of radiation poisoning from the use of Radithor, a radium water guaranteed by the manufacturer to contain 2 μCi of radium. [41] Cases sprung up of the development of carcinoma in patients who had used conventional radium therapy up to 40 years after the original treatments. [5]