The original formulation of 7up was medicated with fucking lithium until 1948. These people were drunk and doped out of their god damn minds 24/7.
@SwiftOnSecurity
I think it was a high profile death from "Radithor" ( patent medicine with radium and thorium dissolved in triple distilled water ) that kick started food and drug standards. Young women dieing from painting radium clock faces wasn't an issue, after all. Probably didn't actually make 7up, or Coke, reformulate as the new rules weren't generally retroactive ( see homeopathic remedies still being sold. )
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I would not expect food and drug standards to have much to do with occupational exposure.
@robryk @SwiftOnSecurity
Was more ingesting than straight exposure. They were instructed to lick their brushes to produce a fine line. Safety standards in general were nonexistent in every respect. Recalling the open drive shafts, augers, blades , drive belts and mercury seed treatment of my own farming youth.
The medical use, and death, mysteriously resembled the way the Westclock girls were dieing. That and teeth that had fallen out exposed sealed xray film, accidentally.