Does anyone remember seeing or using shoe fitting Xray machines, used back in the day? You stick your feet into the cabinet, then you could see the bones in your feet and watch them move as you wiggle your toes, thus assuring a better shoe fit. The machines were eventually removed from the stores because of long term radiation health concerns. Poor shoe salesmen!

If you think that's bad, to make glow-in-the-dark watch and clock faces, for some decades factory workers would trace paint mixed with radium by dipping their brushes into the bins- and whenever the paint would get too scarce for the brushes to paint, they'd LICK the brushes with their tongues!:eek:

Can you imagine how much radiation those workers ingested and/or got on their tongues, mouths,etc.?

How about Mercurochrome? This antiseptic had trace amounts of mercury, and was widely used in the 50s and 60s.

Oh those xray machines in shoe stores, what the H good were they? What I did miss in the last 20-30 yrs was real people helping to fit your shoes in a store. That's all gone unless one still has a mom pop shoe store and I believe we still have one unless it's gone due to covid....