The Radium Worked Until His Jaw Fell Off

We'd like to thank Luciteria for the loan of the element samples and the display in today’s episode. To learn more please check them out here: https://www.luciteria.com/ I already own a lot of these. After its discovery by Marie Curie, the radioactive element radium was incorporated into everything as a “cure all.” The most famous was RADITHOR, a radium-infused tonic that claimed to treat over 150 different ailments. Eben Byers would drink over 1,000 bottles of Radithor in three years. This episode of [HALF-LIFE HISTORIES] explains how Byers’ resulting death would change an entire industry. TITLE FROM: “The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off”: https://web.archive.org/web/20170216124222/https://case.edu/affil/MeMA/MCA/11-20/1991-Nov.pdf SOURCES: Radium Wikipedia: https://www.nrc.gov/materials/types/radium.html The Radium Girls book: https://www.amazon.com/Radium-Girls-Story-Americas-Shining/dp/149264935X Marie Curie Nobel summary: https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/marie-curie Radithor Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor “The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off”: https://web.archive.org/web/20170216124222/https://case.edu/affil/MeMA/MCA/11-20/1991-Nov.pdf Radium “cures”: http://www.museumofquackery.com/devices/radium.htm William Bailey Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._A._Bailey The Radiendocrinator: https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/radioactive-quack-cures/radioactive-pads/radiendocrinator.html Radithor health museum: https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/radioactive-quack-cures/pills-potions-and-other-miscellany/radithor.html Radithor PubMed article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2195177/ Eben Byers Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Byers Eben Byers’ cemetery: https://web.archive.org/web/20160113201140/http://www.alleghenycemetery.com/images/newsletter/newsletter_XIII_1.pdf The discovery of radioactivity: https://www.aps.org/apsnews/2008/02/becquerel-discovers-radioactivity Radium Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium Radium Girls NIH summary: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5595405/ “Hot Bones” journal article: https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article-abstract/82/21/1667/927947?redirectedFrom=PDF Radium Girls Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls 00:00 Intro 01:14 The Radium Girl 03:59 The Long Con 07:21 The Cheating of Ebenezer Byers by the Con Man William Bailey 14:15 Radium Jaw 19:07 Hot Bones 22:10 Patreon Names 💪 JOIN [THE FACILITY] for members-only live streams, behind-the-scenes posts, and the official Discord: https://www.patreon.com/kylehill 👕 NUCLEAR WASTE WARNING MERCH OUT NOW! https://shop.kylehill.net 🎥 SUB TO THE GAMING CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfTNPE8mXGBZPC1nfVtOJTw ✅ MANDATORY LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, AND TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS 📲 FOLLOW ME ON SOCIETY-RUINING SOCIAL MEDIA: 📷 https://www.instagram.com/sci_Phile/ 😎: Kyle 🎬: Charles Shattuck 🎞: Kevin Onofreo ✂: Nate Berger 📝: @adef 🤖: @clairemax 🎨: Thorsten Denk https://www.z1mt.com/ 🎼: @mey 🎹: bensound.com 🎨: Mr. Mass https://youtube.com/c/MysteryGiftMovie 🎵: freesound.org