"Safe Products": Watch Out for the Secret Ingredient!
A shocking 1955 advert demonstrating how a cold cream can conquer radioactivity!Gives a whole new meaning to a ’glowing complexion’.
MentalFloss.com examines this crazy phenomenon in the article "11 Ways We Used Radiation in Everyday Life":
Radiation as a medical cure has valid uses and definite dangers to the human body. We use radiation for diagnosis (as in x-rays) and for therapy (as in cancer treatment), but the benefits must be carefully weighed against the costs. Once upon a time, radiation in different forms was new and wondrous and had a million uses -medications, cosmetics, industrial applications, and even entertainment. It was only later that the danger became evident.
Such ’wonders’ consisted of radioactive toothpaste, elixirs, children’s toys with radioactive materials, "dozens of devices produced to add radiation to water", and most dismaying of all - radium suppositories!
The list of horrifying ways that radiation was used in everyday life in the 1940s and 1950s is a good wake-up call. It hopefully makes a modern consumer wonder at the items and methods we use today which we are assured are ’safe’ and ’normal’, but may be seen as wildly dangerous and incredible 60 years from now!
One item that springs to mind is the ’green’ compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulb which contains mercury but is sold as an energy-saving ’moral’ product to conserve energy and thus the environment. Just don’t break one, or everyone must flee the contaminated room for their safety!
READ: Energy Saving Light Bulbs ’Contain Cancer Causing Chemicals’
Other products or concepts that are deemed ’safe’ by interested corporations and agencies are things such as: genetically modified foods, cellphones and wireless tech, geoengineering, TSA Backscatter x-ray scanners, ’green’ products, cosmetics, chemicals like BPA, aspartame, high-fructose corn syrup, fluoride, and more.
In all these cases, studies suggest these items are not as safe as we’re lead to believe. (See related articles below)
History has shown that it’s not always in a consumers best interest to implicitly trust the scientists, corporations, advertisers and other professionals who profess that things are ’safe’, even good for you!
There’s little difference between the above commercial for Camel cigarettes, and the following ad recommending diet drinks containing sugar-replacement chemicals:
The best way to avoid things like radioactive dirt on your face and radium suppositories up your butt is to be aware - search for answers, and stay informed.
By Elizabeth Leafloor, Red Ice Creations
