Misleading Claims and Symbology - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I came across this article about radioactive cosmetics. It will be unsettling, but the article is worth spending a few minutes to read:

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/when-beauty-products-were-radioactive/index.html

One of the products the article mentions was sold under the name "Radithor".

I first read about Radithor in a book entitled "100,000,000 Guinea Pigs : Dangers In Everyday Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics". The number in the title, one-hundred-million, was the population of The United States at the time of the book's publication in 1933.

The book describes in gruesome and merciless detail the medical horrors and the death of someone who had used that stuff. The book also describes the profits being made and the lives being lost but I never saw any mention of legal consequences, if any, that the makers of Radithor might have later faced.

Back then, the word "radiation" had a magical appeal to the general and unfortunately gullible, public. Today, that word stirs up feelings of alarm, justifiably or not, whether in reference to nuclear waste or to 5G cell phones or to microwave ovens or to x-rays or to ultra-violet. (How is your stock of sunscreen?)

Although radioactive cosmetics are no longer in vogue, other words have come to have gained similar public panache.

During my childhood for example, the phrase "atomic energy" had great appeal for the undefined but presumably sublime miracles it was going to bring about. Predictions were made of having atomic powered airplanes. Frequent use of the word "atomic" and cartoonish drawings of atoms could be found everywhere. Here and there, you can still find such imagery.

Do you remember being told that "computers never make mistakes"? That piece of drivel would be launched your way if a utility bill came in at several thousand dollars for a single month. The magic of the word "computer" faded somewhat when personal computers arrived and people started dealing one-on-one with DOS,  Windows and OS/2.

It still happens. These days, think about the word "laser".

Comments

[john Dunn]

Just to the point about "atomic", please see:

https://www.gocomics.com/muttandjeff/2021/02/18