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.

[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.

[4] Radithor, an "energy drink" of distilled water with traces of radium, was marketed as a panacea.

[3] One of its most famous advocates, golfer Eben Byers, died in 1932 of radium poisoning through his consumption of the product.