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Category: Toxic History! lecture series

Episode 22: Radithor Radioactive Water

Posted on November 3, 2023

In the 1920s and 1930s, radium was an exciting new material. It was used to illuminate watch dials in the dark, treat tumors, and also as a primary ingredient in quack medical remedies. This is the story of Radithor, a fake medicine containing radium.

Episode 21: The Salem Witch Trials and the Ergot Hypothesis

Posted on October 19, 2023

The Salem witch trials of the early 1690s were the most notorious and lethal witch hunt in American history. At the heart of the trials, the Village of Salem was a town at its boiling point, but the complex political and social factors at play still seem insufficient to explain the happenings that ultimately transpired….

Episode 20: Bringing Deadly Sleepe: A Review of Selected Pre-1900s Toxicology Literature

Posted on September 22, 2023

Toxicology is full of treatments which are poorly supported by literature. Many of those treatments originated over 100 years ago. If you think data are bad now, we invite you to see what treatments were like in the past – drawn from the pages of multiple historical toxicology textbooks.

Episode 19: Dioxins and the Poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko

Posted on August 29, 2023

Dioxins are a category of persistent organic pollutant (POP), with a long history of human exposure and serious adverse health and environmental effects. Where did this forever chemical come from, and how did it end up in the dinner of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in 2004? Join us as we discuss the long-lasting legacy of…

Episode 18: Twisted Sister, a Widow’s Intrigue

Posted on July 21, 2023

Springtime at the turn of the 20thcentury promised rebirth, hope, and prosperity in America. But in northern Michigan, a twisted nightmare was consuming an idyllic community. An infant was found deceased in a crib, the mother succumbing within the next hour, and the father only days later. Some feared a curse, others speculated a contagion….

Episode 17: The Birds and The Brains: Domoic Acid Poisoning

Posted on June 23, 2023

Episode 16: Counting Sheep in Skull Valley

Posted on May 12, 2023

Episode 15: The Ordeal Bean

Posted on March 28, 2023May 5, 2023

Episode 14: The Fentanyl Epidemics

Posted on February 17, 2023May 5, 2023

Episode 13: Toxic Grains

Posted on January 20, 2023May 5, 2023
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The upcoming live Toxic History! webinars with AACT will be at 1PM EST on:

March 18, 2025
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Aug or Sept 2025 date TBD
December 16, 2025


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