The problem with ingesting radium is that it’s similar to calcium in terms of its orbital outer-shell electron structure. He believed it so much that he started sharing Radithor with his friends, girlfriends, and even his horses. He quickly upped his intake to three bottles a day after claiming to feel “instantly” better. He began drinking Radithor in 1927 after hurting his arm. The most notable consumer of this product was Eben Byers. I KNOW!ĭespite its lethality, 400,000 bottles of Radithor were sold over five years. So even after 80 years, a small bottle of Radithor would max out a Geiger counter. That’s a lot of very bad things! What’s worse is that the radiation rate for radium-228 increases by over 10% after a person stops ingesting it. What made Radithor so dangerous? Radium-226 and radium-228 decay at a rate of over four million times per second! Each of those four million radiation bursts find something to hit and destroy in the body. This means that they make it about a centimeter into the body and stay there doing very bad things. Unlike x-rays, which are capable of exiting the body, alpha and beta particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper or aluminum, respectively. It has a half-life of 5.75 years and emits beta particles. Radium-228 is a product of thorium decay. It has a half-life of 1,600 years (!!!) and emits alpha particles. Radium-226 is a product of uranium decay. The key takeaway here is that Radithor was legitimately poisonous.īear with me or skip to the next section. Each tiny, half-ounce bottle contained one microcurie each of radium-226 and radium-228. Bailey claimed it could cure over 150 diseases. His triple-distilled water enriched with radium salts was advertised as “perpetual sunshine”. Radithor was invented in 1925 by a man named William Bailey. X-rays are taken (and should be taken) by licensed professionals trained to limit exposure while maintaining the integrity of a diagnostic image. Imaging tests are ordered by doctors after weighing the benefits against the risks. That said, don’t run out screaming the next time your doctor orders an x-ray. There’s always a risk when it comes to ionizing radiation. That said, it would be irresponsible of me to withhold this: there is no such thing as a safe dose. So there’s a small chance of me Hulking out any time soon. For example, alpha and beta particles do a lot of harm, while x-rays and gamma rays cause little harm, relatively speaking. But there are different types of radiation. What’s the Likelihood I’ll turn into the Hulk?Īt this point you might be thinking, “But Jenn, don’t you work with radiation every day?” Why yes, blog reader, I do. At its worst, it can damage DNA, prompting an increased risk of cancer, genetic mutations, and even death. Radiation causes ionization of atoms, which results in unwanted chemical reactions in cells. Long story short-ish, if something is radioactive, it’s not good. You should know that it’s taking all of my strength not to dive into the physics behind radioactivity and half-lives. This means that as time passes, the nucleus of the atom breaks down and releases energy that does bad stuff. Radium releases radiant energy with every nuclear decay. Fun fact about Marie Curie: She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes. Radium is a radioactive element that was discovered by Marie Curie in 1898.
You’ve never heard of Radithor? Well, sit down because I’m going to fill your brain with so much information about it-more than you ever cared to know, I’m sure. One of the most interesting stupid inventions is Radithor. I recently found my audience engrossed as I talked about all of the stupid ways we used radium in the past. Okay, so my idea of a fun fact probably differs from that of most, but here we are, discussing radium water. Fun fact! We once thought that infusing water with radium was a great idea.
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