Radium rods in the nose

My mother was a student in the Maryland/Delaware area in the 1940s. She remembers people at the school doing medical testing on the children by inserting radium rods in their noses. I've heard that there was later a class action lawsuit about this.

Does anyone have information about what these tests were about and what has happened to those tested?

done a quick search...dont know this could be something???

From the '40s to the '60s, children nationwide were treated for ear, nose, and throat problems with nasal-radium irradiation, a procedure developed and popularized by Johns Hopkins. Now, many of them are questioning whether the cure was worse than the maladies-and why they can't get an answer.


Hundreds of people who had the treatment as children are now stepping forward to report a wide array of bizarre ailments-from entire sets of teeth falling out to impotency, pituitary-gland and thyroid tumors, and cancer of the tongue and cheek.

members.aol.com...