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Image:Tho-Radia-IMG 1228.JPG 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