For a long time it was assumed that anything so miraculously energetic as radioactivity must be beneficial. For years, manufacturers of toothpaste and laxatives put radioactive thorium in their products, and at least until the late 1920s the Glen Springs Hotel in the Finger Lakes region of New York {and doubtless others as well} featured with pride the therapeutic effects of its "Radioactive mineral springs." Radioactivity wasn't banned in consumer products until 1938.
( Bill Bryson )
[ A Short History of Nearly ]
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