Radium Was Sold as a Health Product and It Killed the People Who Trusted It

 When Marie Curie discovered radium in 1898 the world was fascinated.

Here was a substance that glowed. That produced energy seemingly from nothing. That was unlike anything science had ever described before. The early 20th century did not yet understand the danger. What it understood was the wonder.

And where there is wonder, there are people ready to sell it.

What They Sold

Within years of radium's discovery consumer products containing radium were appearing on the market with claims that the element's energy could improve health, restore vitality, cure disease, and enhance beauty.

Radithor was a bottled water product containing dissolved radium that was marketed as a cure for impotence and general vitality. Wealthy consumers drank it regularly. One prominent socialite and athlete named Eben Byers consumed over 1,400 bottles before doctors noticed his jaw was literally falling off his skull. He died in 1932. A Wall Street Journal headline about his case read The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Fell Off.

Radium face cream was sold with promises that the radioactive glow would translate into a glowing complexion. Radium toothpaste was marketed because it made teeth glow in the dark which was presented as evidence of its cleansing power. Radium chocolate was sold in Germany. Radium suppositories existed.

These products were not fringe items sold by obvious charlatans. They were mainstream consumer goods sold in reputable stores and endorsed in respectable publications.

The Radium Girls

The most documented human cost of radium's early misuse falls on a group of young women who painted watch dials at the United States Radium Corporation in New Jersey starting in the 1910s.

The dial painters were instructed to point their paintbrushes with their lips to get a fine tip. They ingested radium every day at work. Supervisors assured them the substance was harmless. Some workers painted their fingernails and teeth with it as a joke because it glowed in the dark.

Years later their bones were disintegrating. Their jaws were developing necrosis. They were dying of cancers that contemporary medicine could barely explain.

The women fought back. Despite being sick and despite company lawyers working against them they pursued legal action. Their cases established that companies could be held liable for exposing workers to hazardous conditions and helped lay the groundwork for modern workplace safety law.

Their sacrifice is documented. Their names should be known. Grace Fryer. Edna Hussman. Katherine Schaub. Albina Larice. Quinta McDonald.

They are the reason American workers have some of the workplace protections they have today.

Robert Lee Beers III is a writer and digital preservation advocate based in North Charleston South Carolina.