Chemistry:Radium fad
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] Many radium products contained no actual radium, in part because it was prohibitively expensive, which turned out to be a grace, as high levels of radium exposure can result in radiation-induced cancer.[2]
The fad began to fizzle out following the emergence of research that radium could be hazardous to health, and high-profile cases such as the Radium Girls and the death of Eben Byers, which proved this fact.[3][4]
In the United States, the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act outlawed deceptive packaging, further preventing companies being able to use radium as a marketing tool.[3]
Radium-infused products
Radium was added to, or used to market, a number of consumer goods. These included cosmetics, such as the brand Tho-Radia,[3] toothpaste, hair cream, and hemorrhoid cream.[4]
Radium was also used to give products a glowing appearance, as in the case of watches painted with radium-containing paint.[3]
Radium was also used in some ceramics, including in the production of radium water crocks, whose purpose was to irradiate drinking water.[4]
See also
- Uranium glass
- Electrical quackery
References
- ↑ Suihkonen, Andrea (2021-04-16). "Atomic Panacea: The Radium Fad of the Early 20th Century". UWM Undergraduate Research Symposium. https://dc.uwm.edu/uwsurca/2021/asynchronous/158.
- ↑ ""Get Me A Radium Highball!": New York and the Radium Craze" (in en). https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/get-me-a-radium-highball-new-york-and-the-radium-craze.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Prisco, Jacopo (2020-03-03). "When beauty products were radioactive" (in en). https://www.cnn.com/style/article/when-beauty-products-were-radioactive/index.html.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Dotinga, Randy (2020-02-15). "The lethal legacy of early 20th-century radiation quackery". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-lethal-legacy-of-early-20th-century-radiation-quackery/2020/02/14/ed1fd724-37c9-11ea-bf30-ad313e4ec754_story.html.
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