2023-11-12 14:01:11
A recent lecture by Adam Blumenberg, assistant professor at Columbia University, on Radithor, the story of a fake drug, is available on YouTube. About the drug, which contained exactly what it said on the label: distilled water with regarding 2 micrograms of radium in each bottle (yes, that’s a lot). The presentation presents the technology and social environment surrounding such a product, which played an important role in the passage of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. Radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie. The most famous death in Illinois is the so-called The tragic case of the “Radium Girls” in 1928. It wasn’t until 1932, following the gruesome death of Eben M. Byers—a rich and famous golfer—that the dangers of radium came into focus. The deadly radium Radium is actually a very interesting substance, but it is better to keep it outside the body. When ingested, due to its chemical structure, the body treats it as calcium and builds it into the bones. Then the body degrades horribly. Eben Byers consumed Radithor for years before finally dying of radium poisoning. At the time of his death, he was estimated to have consumed around 1,400 bottles of it. At the end of his life, according to a report in the hospital, his exhaled breath was found to be radioactive. His jaw literally fell apart. There were large holes in his bones and his death was infinitely sad. It is interesting to note that Radithor was specifically advertised as harmless and was prescribed to Byers by a doctor. The Scammer’s “Cure” The man behind Radithor and many other bogus cures is William Bailey. Bailey, the swindler expelled from Harvard, whose first fake medicine was a male enhancement made with strychnine. Then he switched to products containing radium. According to the marketing regulations of the time, the only requirement was that a product make true claims regarding what it contains. Radithor certainly did. In any case, Radithor was eventually shut down following Byers’ death, and the case contributed to increasing awareness of the need for consumer protection laws. All of this finally led to the adoption of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act in 1938.
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#Radioactive #water #terrifying #health #fad
