Concept
Radioactive quackery is quackery that improperly promotes radioactivity as a therapy for illnesses. Unlike radiotherapy, which is the scientifically sound use of radiation for the destruction of cells (usually cancer cells), quackery pseudo-scientifically promotes involving radioactive substances as a method of healing for cells and tissues. It was most popular during the early 20th century, after the discovery in 1896 of radioactive decay. The practice has widely declined, but is still actively practiced by some. Radithor, a solution of radium salts, which was claimed by its developer William J. A. Bailey to have curative properties. Industrialist Eben Byers died in 1932 from ingesting it in large quantities throughout 1927–1930. One German brand of toothpaste from prior to the Second World War, Doramad Radioactive Toothpaste, contained small amounts of thorium that was a byproduct in the manufacture of gas lamp mantles. The advertising for this toothpaste stated "Your teeth will shine with radioactive brilliance". A number of spas that treat visitors with naturally infused radon water from the local hills were founded in 1906 and onwards in Jáchymov, Czech Republic, and still exist today. These spas were world-renowned, as evidenced by an article in the New Zealand Thames Star Supplement from 1912 (the article uses the Austrian name of the town, Joachimsthal). Similar spas currently exist in Germany, Ukraine and Austria and in Germany they are covered by public health insurance. Revigator pots, which added radon to drinking water. Uranium sand houses, where patients would sit on benches in a round room that had a floor composed of mildly radioactive sand (usually beach sand with crushed minerals like carnotite). These were popular in Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado during the 1950s. Lying in a narrow box with sands that reputedly contained uranium ore was promoted as a treatment for arthritis, bursitis, and rheumatism as late as 1956.
