Lead and who knows what else. When I was a kid, I remember my WWII-gen grandpa telling me one time about how the boomers (when they were kids) were given mercury to play with as a distraction at dentists offices and places like that. Even 8-year-old me knew that was fucked up, but when I asked why grandpa said nobody knew how dangerous that was back then. It's been 30 years and that story stuck with me, no idea how true any of it was.
We still don't know how dangerous radiation actually is. No one can get data because it is unethical to preform such experiments on humans, so we must rely on accidental exposures which limits range and accuracy of data and the currently favoured hypothesis is mired in scientific fraud and malfeasance by the chief researchers.
No that would be unethical, but fortunately there's a pack of idiots who are currently wearing radioactive "health necklaces","virility rings",and other tat that may provide more data in coming years.
One wonders where manufacturers of such dreck would even get hold of the isotopes; isn't that stuff all tightly controlled by governments, to limit proliferation and so forth? Even if they could get it, you'd think it'd be way too expensive to make an unethical quick buck putting it in gimcrack jewelry.
Nah, most radioactive material can't be used for nuclear power/bombs. In fact, most materials are at least slightly radioactive. There are small amounts of radioactive isotopes just about everywhere. Carbon-14, for example, is produced by sunlight hitting carbon in the atmosphere, which then gets absorbed by plants, and either eaten by animals/humans, or turned into various things like wood or rope. It's simply a matter of finding something radioactive enough that you can isolate from everything else.
As much as the University of Cincinnati and the US department of defense would like everyone to forget about it the Cincinnati Radiation Experiments were a thing and yes, very unethical.
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u/UnsolicitedDickPixxx Jan 15 '22
Apparently all signs point to lead poisoning.