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.[1] 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.[2]
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.[3][4]
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.[3]
- ^ Suihkonen, Andrea (2021-04-16). "Atomic Panacea: The Radium Fad of the Early 20th Century". UWM Undergraduate Research Symposium.
- ^ ""Get Me A Radium Highball!": New York and the Radium Craze". New-York Historical Society (nyhistory.org). Retrieved 2024-01-21.
- ^ a b Prisco, Jacopo (2020-03-03). "When beauty products were radioactive". CNN. Retrieved 2024-01-21.
- ^ Dotinga, Randy (2020-02-15). "The lethal legacy of early 20th-century radiation quackery". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-01-21.