A quiz question · medium
What was Radithor, the product that killed millionaire Eben Byers in 1932?
Radium banks in bone like calcium. Byers's jaw was removed before his death; the Wall Street Journal's headline ran 'The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off.'
Read the full story →From the story
Eben Byers, the Millionaire Who Drank 1,400 Bottles of Radium Water Until His Jaw Came Off Pittsburgh industrialist and amateur golf champion Eben Byers began drinking Radithor — certified radium dissolved in water — in 1927, at up to three bottles a day. By 1931 his bones were disintegrating and his jaw had been surgically removed. His death in March 1932 killed the radioactive patent-medicine industry, under the Wall Street Journal's immortal headline.
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