5. Radioactive beauty products
In the early 20th century, radiation was perceived exclusively as a positive phenomenon, which swindlers didn’t fail to take advantage of: you could buy cosmetics, food, and drinks enriched with radium and thorium, radioactive souvenirs, and even devices for saturating water with radioactive elements.
Sadly, there were casualties. Athlete Eben Byers drank huge doses of the radium-based medicine Radithor, which led to his death. The Wall Street Journal reacted to this sad incident with a headline reading “The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off.”