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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. 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. 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. 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. 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, toothpaste, hair cream, and hemorrhoid cream. Radium was also used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radioactive Quackery
Radioactive quackery is quackery that improperly promotes radioactive decay, radioactivity as a therapy for illnesses. Unlike radiotherapy, which is the science, scientifically sound use of radiation for the destruction of cell (biology), cells (usually cancer cells), quackery Pseudoscience, pseudo-scientifically promotes involving radioactive substances as a method of healing for cells and tissue (biology), 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. Notable examples * Tho-Radia, a cream containing radium bromide, notable for its iconic advertising using the name of Dr. Alfred Curie, who shared the surname of Pierre and Marie Curie but had no connection to them. * 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radium
Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rather than oxygen) upon exposure to air, forming a black surface layer of radium nitride (Ra3N2). All isotopes of radium are radioactive, the most stable isotope being radium-226 with a half-life of 1,600 years. When radium decays, it emits ionizing radiation as a by-product, which can excite fluorescent chemicals and cause radioluminescence. For this property, it was widely used in Self-luminous paint, self-luminous paints following its discovery. Of the Radionuclide, radioactive elements that occur in quantity, radium is considered particularly Toxicity, toxic, and it is Carcinogen, carcinogenic due to the radioactivity of both it and its immediate decay product radon as well as its tendency to B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radiation-induced Cancer
Exposure to ionizing radiation is known to increase the future incidence of cancer, particularly leukemia. The mechanism by which this occurs is well understood, but quantitative models predicting the level of risk remain controversial. The most widely accepted model posits that the incidence of cancers due to ionizing radiation increases linearly with effective radiation dose at a rate of 5.5% per sievert; if correct, natural background radiation is the most hazardous source of radiation to general public health, followed by medical imaging as a close second. Additionally, the vast majority of non-invasive cancers are non-melanoma skin cancers caused by ultraviolet radiation (which lies on the boundary between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation). Non-ionizing radio frequency radiation from mobile phones, electric power transmission, and other similar sources have been investigated as a possible carcinogen by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, but to date, no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radium Girls
The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium dials – watch dials and hands with radioluminescence, self-luminous paint. The incidents occurred at three factories in the United States: one in Orange, New Jersey, beginning around 1917; one in Ottawa, Illinois, beginning in the early 1920s; and one in Waterbury, Connecticut, also in the 1920s. After being told that the paint was harmless, the women in each facility ingested deadly amounts of radium after being instructed to "point" their brushes on their lips in order to give them a fine tip. The women were instructed to point their brushes in this way because using rags or a water rinse caused them to use more time and material, as the paint was made from powdered radium, zinc sulfide (a phosphorescence, phosphor), gum arabic, and water. The Radium Girls had lasting effects on the labor laws in the United States and Europe following numerous lawsuits following deaths and ill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eben Byers
Ebenezer McBurney Byers (April 12, 1880 – March 31, 1932) was an American socialite, sportsman, and industrialist. He won the 1906 U.S. Amateur in golf. He died from jawbone cancer after consuming 1400 bottles of Radithor, a patent medicine made from radium salts dissolved in water. Biography The son of industrialist Alexander Byers, Eben Byers was educated at St. Paul's School and Yale College. He earned a reputation as a sportsman and played on the Yale Bulldogs golf team. Byers was the U.S. Amateur golf champion of 1906, after finishing runner-up in 1902 and 1903. Byers eventually became the chairman of the Girard Iron Company, which had been created by his father. In 1927, Byers injured his arm falling from a railway sleeping berth. For the persistent pain, a doctor suggested he take Radithor, a patent medicine manufactured by William J. A. Bailey. Bailey was a Harvard University dropout who falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine and had become rich from the sal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tho-Radia
Tho-Radia was a French pharmaceutical company making cosmetics between 1932 and 1968. Tho-Radia-branded creams, toothpastes and soaps were notable for containing radium and thorium until 1937, as a scheme to exploit popular interest for radium after it was discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie, in a fad of radioactive quackery. Foundation So-called "microcurietherapy" In the early 1910s, French pharmacist Alexandre Jaboin postulated the principles of "microcurietherapy", inspired by the success of curietherapy in treating certain cancers: he assumed that very small doses of radium would stimulate living cells and increase their energy. These notions were not scientifically demonstrated, but they triggered a fad for radium-laden medicine and cosmetics. Several brands started exploiting the market in the course of the 1910s, notably Activa and Radior.. Dr Alfred Curie's formula In the early 1920s, pharmacist Alexis Moussalli joined the Millot pharmaceutical laboratories in P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uranium Glass
Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium, usually in oxide diuranate form, added to a glass mix before melting for colouration. The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% uranium by weight, although some 20th-century pieces were made with up to 25% uranium. First identified in 1789 by German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, uranium was soon being added to decorative glass for its fluorescent effect. James Powell's Whitefriars Glass company in London, England, was one of the first to market the glowing glass, but other manufacturers soon realised its sales potential and uranium glass was produced across Europe and later in Ohio. Uranium glass was made into tableware and household items, but fell out of widespread use when the availability of uranium to most industries was sharply curtailed during the Cold War in the 1940s to 1990s, with the vast majority of the world's uranium supply being utilised as a strategic material for use in nuclear weapons or nuc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lead Pipes
Lead () is a chemical element; it has symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, lead is a shiny gray with a hint of blue. It tarnishes to a dull gray color when exposed to air. Lead has the highest atomic number of any stable element and three of its isotopes are endpoints of major nuclear decay chains of heavier elements. Lead is a relatively unreactive post-transition metal. Its weak metallic character is illustrated by its amphoteric nature; lead and lead oxides react with acids and bases, and it tends to form covalent bonds. Compounds of lead are usually found in the +2 oxidation state rather than the +4 state common with lighter members of the carbon group. Exceptions are mostly limited to organolead compounds. Like the lighter members of the group, lead tends to bond with itself; it can form chains and polyhedral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arsenic Green (other)
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Arsenic green is a pigment or dye that gets its colour from the element arsenic and may refer to: * Scheele's Green * Paris green Paris green (copper(II) acetate triarsenite or copper(II) acetoarsenite) is an arsenic-based organic pigment. As a green pigment it is also known as Mitis green, Schweinfurt green, Sattler green, emerald, Vienna green, Emperor green or Mount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asbestos
Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length substantially greater than width) being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere by Abrasion (mechanical), abrasion and other processes. Inhalation of asbestos fibres can lead to various dangerous lung conditions, including mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer. As a result of these health effects, asbestos is considered a serious Health hazard, health and safety hazard. Archaeological studies have found evidence of asbestos being used as far back as the Stone Age to strengthen ceramic pots, but large-scale mining began at the end of the 19th century when manufacturers and builders began using asbestos for its desirable physical properties. Asbestos is an excellent Thermal insulation, thermal and In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electrical Quackery
Energy medicine is a branch of alternative medicine based on a pseudo-scientific belief that healers can channel "healing energy" into patients and effect positive results. The field is defined by shared beliefs and practices relating to mysticism and esotericism in the wider alternative medicine sphere rather than any unified terminology, leading to terms such as energy healing, vibrational medicine, and similar terms being used synonymously. In most cases, no empirically measurable "energy" is involved: the term refers instead to so-called subtle energy. Practitioners may classify their practice as hands-on, hands-off, or distant, wherein the patient and healer are in different locations. Many approaches to energy healing exist: for example, "biofield energy healing", "spiritual healing", "contact healing", "distant healing", therapeutic touch, Reiki, and ''Qigong''. Reviews of the scientific literature on energy healing have concluded that no evidence supports its clin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
