Radium and Health in 1914
Radium and Quack Medicines
from Nature Magazine, vol 93, 225, 1914.In view of the fact that a large number of drugs, earths and waters, said to be radio-active, are being offered for sale to the general public for the treatment of certain diseases, the medical committee of the British Science Guild recently instituted an inquiry into the question of radium and its therapeutic uses.
The result of the inquiry indicates the urgent necessity for legislation in order to safeguard the interests of the community in the sale of these substances, by compelling a written guarantee to be given as to the quantity of radium present in the substances offered for sale.
The use of radium in cases of cancer is now widely known, but it is necessary to warn the public that no definite evidence that cancer is permanently curable by radium is yet forthcoming. The immediate effect of the treatment of cancer by radium is often highly satisfactory…it is only by keeping under observation by five years patients who have been so treated that a definite decision can be come to as to the place of radiu therapy shall take in the treatment of malignant diseases.
The great strides that have been made in recent years in the use of radium for the treatment of disease, and the results obtained, encourage the medical profession to persevere with this therapeutic agent. However, radium in its application to disease is still but little understood, and until more experimental, pathological and clinical data have been collected to show the effect of this agent upon, not only the diseased but also the healthy tissues of the body, dogmatic statements as to its therapeutic value cannot be made.
In these circumstances of uncertainty the public is warned that there is danger that the claims which have been made for radium as a curative agent may lead to frauds on the credulous section of the public…
The inclusion of radium in the Pharmacopiae would be of material benefit to the public, and it proposed to take the steps necessary to secure this end. It has also be suggested t hat radium should be scheduled as a poison under the Foods and Drugs Act, which would be an additional safeguard against the victimization of the public.
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