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Radithor was sold as “radioactive water” and promoted as a treatment for impotence and other illnesses. Its radioactive nature was not hidden: under the federal law then in force, truthful labeling did not by itself stop the product from being sold, even though the FDA describes it as extremely dangerous. The death of businessman Eben Byers from radium poisoning made the risks—and the limits of that law—impossible to ignore.
What was Radithor?
Radithor was a medicinal tonic made with radioactive material and marketed in the early twentieth century as a remedy for a wide range of ailments. The FDA’s historical account identifies it as radioactive water and says it was promoted for impotence and other diseases. People were not drinking it because they had unknowingly encountered contamination; radioactivity was part of the product’s selling point.
A November 10, 2023 account by Hackaday reports that each bottle contained around 2 micrograms of radium in distilled water. That is a figure reported by a secondary source, not an independently verified assay cited by the FDA.
Why did people drink radioactive water?
Radithor belonged to a period when radioactivity was widely associated with health and vitality, and products containing radioactive materials were marketed as tonics or treatments. Radithor’s claims promised a medicinal benefit, including for impotence. That marketing did not establish that the product worked or that it was safe; its radioactive character was treated as an attraction rather than a warning.
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The available sources do not establish how many bottles Radithor sold or the full scale of the broader fad. The evidence supports describing it as a prominent example, not assigning it a sales total or using it to quantify the popularity of radioactive products.
What happened to Eben Byers?
Eben Byers, a prominent businessman and athlete, consumed Radithor for years and died of radium poisoning, according to the FDA. Hackaday estimates that he drank about 1,400 bottles; that number is a secondary-source estimate, not a total given by the FDA.
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Byers’s case made the danger of the tonic vivid. It should not be mistaken for proof that his death alone caused a change in federal law: the FDA places Radithor among several dangerous products that demonstrated shortcomings in the existing system.
How could a dangerous product remain legal?
The 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act did not give federal regulators the authority to remove every inherently dangerous drug from the market. In the FDA’s account, Radithor could remain legal because its label accurately called it “radioactive water.” Accurate disclosure of the ingredient was not the same as adequate protection from the product’s hazards or a meaningful demonstration that its health claims were safe.
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In 1938, Congress enacted the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, strengthening federal oversight. The FDA describes the law as closing important loopholes, including by requiring new drugs to be shown safe before marketing and expanding federal authority over devices and cosmetics. Radithor is a striking illustration of why stronger protections mattered, not a single-event explanation for the law’s passage.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the Radithor story does—and does not—show
- It was deliberately sold as radioactive: this was a marketed tonic, not an accidental contamination incident.
- Truthful labeling was not enough: the legal framework of the time had gaps that could leave consumers exposed to inherently dangerous products.
- Byers died of radium poisoning: the FDA identifies that as the cause of death, while the often-repeated bottle count comes from Hackaday’s estimate.
- Regulation changed more broadly: the 1938 law expanded protections, including premarket safety requirements for new drugs; Radithor was one example of the problems the earlier framework could not adequately address.
Sources: FDA, “Radithor”; Hackaday, “Radithor: The Patent Medicine That Killed Eben Byers,” November 10, 2023; FDA, “The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938”.
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