# How toxic was one bottle of Radithor?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-toxic-was-one-bottle-of-radithor/600271>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 20, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-toxic-was-one-bottle-of-radithor/600271 "2011-10-20T17:24:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-toxic-was-one-bottle-of-radithor/600271/1 "2011-10-20T17:24:08Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> Radithor was a patent medicine (snake oil) that is a well known example of radioactive quackery. It consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum 1 microcurie (37 kBq) each of the radium 226 and 228 isotopes.

Ok, so Byers was a famous victim whose jaw dropped off due to Radium, however he downed _1400_ bottles of this sauce.

So how bad is one bottle? One bottle a day for a month? I’m not up to date on microcuries. Was Byers an exception or just one of the many with missing body parts due to the non-totally-genius idea of radium-laced water?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-toxic-was-one-bottle-of-radithor/600271/2 "2011-10-20T18:29:52Z")

</div>

Hard to say. But ingesting the stuff is easily the worst way to absorb it. Ninety percent of the radiation emitted by radium is in the form of alpha particles, which is a fairly low-energy radiation that can be shielded with a sheet of paper and barely penetrates human skin, if at all. But once it gets inside you, those alpha particles can lazily shred you at will, especially if, like radium, the element sticks around for a while. From **The Poisoner’s Handbook** by Deborah Blum:

> [@](#):
>
> Structurally, the element radium can be considered a close if crazed cousin of the element calcium. Both are alkaline earth metals, silvery white in color. Both are built in cubic crystalline structures. As a result, when a person swallows radium, the body channels it in a way similar to calcium—some is metabolized away, some goes toward nerve and muscle function, and most is deposited into the bones.  
> But where calcium strengthens the mineral content of the skeleton, radium does the opposite. It bombards skeletal material with alpha radiation, blasting bony material full of tiny holes, then larger ones, then larger still. It irradiates the blood-forming marrow in the bone’s center. Nothing removes it until it burns itself out—and this is a material with a half-life of sixteen hundred years.

It’s a good book, and Chapter 8 is all about radium, if you’re interested.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-toxic-was-one-bottle-of-radithor/600271/3 "2011-10-20T19:31:47Z")

</div>

> [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](#):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Radithor was a patent medicine (snake oil) that is a well known example of radioactive quackery. It consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum 1 microcurie (37 kBq) each of the radium 226 and 228 isotopes.
> 
> Ok, so Byers was a famous victim whose jaw dropped off due to Radium, however he downed _1400_ bottles of this sauce.
> 
> So how bad is one bottle? One bottle a day for a month? I’m not up to date on microcuries. Was Byers an exception or just one of the many with missing body parts due to the non-totally-genius idea of radium-laced water?

Hijack: Isn’t the quoted bit from Wikipedia?