Radium Water Health Craze: The Revigator and Eben Byers (1920s-1930s)
1920s-30s radium water craze: the Revigator made water genuinely radioactive. Eben Byers died from 1,400 bottles of Radithor, helping end the fad. Key distinction: water-as-shield vs water-as-source.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, radium-infused water products were marketed as health tonics. The Revigator was a ceramic crock lined with radium ore — water placed inside overnight would absorb radon gas and dissolved radium, becoming genuinely radioactive. Eben Byers, a wealthy socialite, consumed approximately 1,400 bottles of Radithor (a commercially sold radium water product) and died from radium poisoning. His death in 1932 was instrumental in ending the radium water fad and contributed to stricter regulation of radioactive consumer products. Critical scientific distinction: Water as a radiation SHIELD (blocking external radiation sources) is the opposite of water CONTAMINATED with radioactive material (which IS itself a radiation source). The radium water products fell into the latter category — they turned the water into the source of radiation exposure.