In his forties, in 1927 to be exact, he injured his shoulder and began taking Radithor under the guidance of his physical therapist. Byers was an American amateur golf champion and owner of one of the largest metal companies. It is interesting to note that many of the patients survived for an extended period of time and many were even alive after administration. Only a small fraction (about 20%) of the administered radium ends up in skeletal tissue, and even the small amount of accumulated isotopes can lead to rapid death when administered acutely. A number of cases have been documented in which patients consumed more than 1000 vials of Radithor over a period of several years. The exact number of patients is not known, but it is certain that four hundred thousand vials were sold worldwide. Consequently, Radithor was one of the many over-the-counter drugs whose possible long-term effects and dangers were not yet known. One opinion was unanimous – ionized radiation (X-rays and gamma rays) is essential for the organism to maintain its normal physiological processes, which is wrong. There were two different opinions – one claimed that radium acted directly on the target organ, and the other that radium directly stimulated both the adrenal and thyroid glands. The indications for which it was prescribed were hypertension, rheumatic diseases, and metabolic disorders. Mild radium therapy was soon adopted, and radium and its isotopes were administered orally and parenterally in the order of micrograms to several thousand people in the United States and Europe. Why did Radithor come on the market in the first place?Īfter the discovery of radium in 1898, the practice focused on the physiological effects of this radioactive element rather than its tumoricidal power. The price at the time was $1 (with a margin of 400 percent!). It was also demonstrated that the composition of this ‘drug” varied depending on the product series. In the 1940s and 1960s, spectroscopic analysis was performed that detected Radithor as a mixture of radium isotopes ( 226Ra and 228Ra) diluted three times with distilled water. “Just a tiny bottle of apparently lifeless, colorless and tasteless water is all that eye can see or the tongue can detect, yet in this bottle there reposes the greatest therapeutic force known to mankind – radioactivity.” It was called “ Eternal Sun” and was sold in 16.5 ml vials. Bailey, launched a new drug – the so-called certified radioactive water was supposed to be powerful, effective and completely harmless at the same time. The American company Bailey Radium Laboratories, under the leadership of its owner William J. What was the danger behind the little vial? Manufacturer and composition In the five years of its existence, this potent drug reached a sales figure of four hundred thousand vials, only to be soon withdrawn from the market. The drug was touted as a metabolic stimulant and aphrodisiac. In 1988, the institute's last two surviving buildings were demolished "due to extensive radiological contamination".In 1925, a new wonder drug called Radithor appeared on the palette of available medicines and gained notoriety by being advertised as a successful therapeutic option primarily for impotence and fatigue, but also for more than 150 endocrine disorders. NRI's plants and sites changed hands and uses several times in the following decades. ![]() The Institute's main radium plant in Denver was closed down in April 1917 and the NRI was officially dissolved as a corporation in Delaware in late 1919 and in Colorado on 20 January 1920. Douglas, a mining executive and philanthropist, in cooperation with the US Bureau of Mines. Howard Kelly a physician at Johns Hopkins University, and James S. The institute was a joint project initiated by Dr. ![]() It was headquartered in Denver, Colorado. ![]() The National Radium Institute (NRI) was an organization incorporated in 1913 to extract radium from US domestic sources for use in cancer treatment and possible industrial use and in the process to develop more efficient methods of radium extraction.
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