text: Eben Byers was a wealthy American socialite whose death in 1932 from using a radioactive quackery product called Radithor is a prominent example of a death caused by radium. Radithor contained ~1 μCi (40 kBq) of Ra and 1 μCi of Ra per bottle. Radithor was taken by mouth and radium, being a calcium mimic, has a very long biological halflife in bone.