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A Reason to Question Authority
Healthy water fads have been around a long time. Most consumers of packaged water
are sold by the company's claims of the purest, most natural H2O available with the finest mineral content. If you
are a believer now, be thankful you were not around 100 years ago when the most
prized water had been properly nuked with an assortment of radioactive elements.
Until the long-term effects of radiation exposure were well known, Radon Water (H2ORn?) was served up to untold thousands in office
coolers, restaurants, and trendy homes. Radon, produced by the radioactive decay
of thorium and uranium, contributes to the heat of natural hot spas where much of
the Radon Water was collected. Once word got out that radon has a half life of just
3.82 days and that it would be largely depleted by the time it got to the consumer,
a new method was necessary to preserve the "freshness." The Radium Ore Revigator
company had a better idea with its water cooler sporting a reservoir of carnotite
(uranium/radium ore) that properly "invigorated" the water overnight. Unfortunately
for the office water cooler crowd, it worked very well. Competition became so intense
that vendors began guaranteeing the full advertised dosage, lest anyone feel cheated.
Bailey Radium Labs offered $1k to anyone who could prove its Radithor water did
not contain the proclaimed amount of radium and thorium. Eben Byers, famous industrialist
and athlete, was a 3-bottle-a-day Radithor believer right up until shortly before
he succumbed to its wickedness. According to the Wall Street Journal headline of
the day, "The Radium Water Worked Fine until His Jaw Came Off."
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