SPRING BREAKing Your Jaw (pt 2)

The Life of Eben Byers

To wrap up the blog post on Radithor, I thought I'd post about an actual outcome of Radithor. This stands separately from the Radium Girls and their licking of Radium paint off of paintbrushes. This post will be about the tragic life of Eden Byers. Radithor was invented by William J Bailey. He boasted about his miracle cure containing at least 1microCurie of Ra-226 and Ra-228. Also that it was entirely harmless. Eben Byers had the misfortune of later proving that final statement wrong. 

William J Bailey was a rather "resourceful" man. From a poor background, he worked his way all the way into Harvard, until he could no longer pay the tuition and had had to drop out. He still claimed however, to be a Harvard graduate. Actually, not only was he a "Harvard Graduate" but also a Dr with an imagined medical degree from the University of Vienna. This eventually came back to bite him as a lawsuit and a guilty plea to illegally practicing medicine.  After dropping out of Harvard he launch many corporations designed to make money no matter the means. He had a company that was supposed to be be fabricated the newest line of automobiles and was accepting preorders. After he receieved hundreds of deposits, it was revealed that his production line was incapable of building one of these said cars yet alone the hundreds reserved.  After a few days in prison for this, it was on to his next venture. A few failed schemes later, he came upon the mysterious radium. He started a business that originally sold radium tablets, Arium, marketing them as a healthy radiation dose one should take every night followed by a glass of water. These Arium pills were analyzed later to have an activity on the nanocurie scale, being composed mainly of other inactive ingredients. This all led to the eventual product of Radithor, which was described in my last post. Claiming it to be a great cure-all it gained major popularity as even some actual doctors recommended it to their patients (there seemed to be a kickback/bonus to any doctor that prescribed this). Also worth noting that Bailey wasn't the only one to sell Radium water he just was temporarily very successful. Also radium water was not the only source of radium exposure. There was a radiation craze around this time from radiation pills and suppositories to radiation condoms. To read more about the interesting life of William J Bailey follow this link.

Eben Byers was an athlete. He was at one time a US golf champion and a graduate from Yale. He came from a rich background. He had everything going for him and was quite popular in his time. But time dims all stars. As he was growing older his health seemed to be not as hot as it used to be. He was approaching his 50s and probably should have accepted his age and slowed down. Yet in 1927 he injured his arm during a party on a train leaving an alma mater football game. After seeing the doctor, he was healed up but also recommended a little Radithor to speed up recovery and assist his health. It was rumored that his age had been slowing down his "night life" and radium water was seen as a possible assist for this.  He began taking it, and early on he did feel better. He championed for the drug making sure all his friends had a botttle. He liked it so much that he generally drank about 3 bottles a day. This all persisted for about two years until the fevers became unbearable and his teeth began falling out. Eben Byers became the scarred face of the dangers of radiation. His weakened testimony was a major factor that helped stop the sale of Radithor. Sadly, at this point he was two weak to make it to the courthouse and his testimony had to be receieved from home. In order to define how horrible this drug had left him I think it's best to just use what was said by those interviewers that went to see him that day (skip the rest of the paragraph if you have an overactive imagination coupled with an unlike of gore): "his whole upper jaw, excepting two front teeth, and most of the lower jaw had been removed. All the remaining bone tissue of his body was slowly disintegrating, and holes were actually forming in his skull." "A more gruesome experience in a more gorgeous setting [his rather expensive mansion] would be hard to imagine." Oh yeah, thus radium Springs breaking your jaw.... thats where that came from.. A little lame and a bit of a reach on the title but that was the inspiration.

Eben Byers died a few months after this testimony. His death was a strong reminder of the dangers of radiation. I yet again remind that these levels of radiation are the exception and an extreme case. This is the type of fear the public shows in regards to Fukushima and such accidents yet releases do not enter this magnitude.  I hope I entertained you all with a story of consumerism and radiation dose that was not the Radium Girls.   Thanks for reading.

Cited:

https://allsignificantbattles.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/william-j-bailey-the-man-who-believed-in-radiation/

http://www.neatorama.com/2013/11/18/The-Strange-Fate-of-Eben-Byers/

https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/radith.htm