Would you believe it if a random person told you that Samsung manufactured machine guns? Or that Volkswagen makes sausages, Toyota sells prefabricated homes and Apple once sold clothes? We did not make any of that up. They are all true.

See Also: Top 10 Famous Companies With Unexpected Origins

You see, while we often associate established brands with certain products, like Lamborghini with sports cars and Sony with electronics, these conglomerates often have other businesses they do. Oftentimes, they just veered off into some other market that is totally unrelated to their core business. At other times, they just happened to be part of a larger multinational that is into things we would not expect.

10 Volkswagen—Ketchup And Sausage

Volkswagen has been making and selling sausages for over 43 years. The sausages are so popular and successful that Volkswagen calls them its “most popular product without wheels”. We think Volkswagen should have actually called it cars its “most popular product ‘with’ wheels” since it actually sells more sausages than cars. In 2015, it sold 5.8 million cars and 7.2 million sausages.

That got us thinking. Does that make Volkswagen a carmaker that sells sausages by the side or a sausage company that sells cars by the side?

The sausage, which the company calls currywurst and brands with the German phrase “Volkswagen Originalteil” (“Volkswagen original parts” in English), is made at the company’s main factory in Wolfburg, Germany. Cars are also made at the facility in case you are wondering. The sausages are made of pork and offered in two different lengths. There is also a vegetarian version.

Volkswagen entered the ketchup business in 1997. Its ketchup is thicker than regular ketchup and flavored with spice and curry. The sausages and ketchup are wildly popular and sold at Volkswagen factories and partner supermarkets in Germany. German dealerships also present a pack to customers who buy new Volkswagens from them.^[1]

9 Apple—Clothes

Apple is renowned for its computers, phones, iPods and lately, financial services. However, if things had gone according to plan, we would have added clothes to the previous sentence. Yes, Apple sold clothes and even launched a clothing line way back in 1986.

What do you think they called it? iShirt? Maccap? No, they called it The Apple Collection. The Apple Collection included t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps and hats. The merchandise either had the former colorful Apple logo or the word “Apple” imprinted on them in some funny looking, old school font.
The clothing line was not Steve Jobs idea. He had left Apple a year earlier. John Sculley was the CEO of Apple at the time. So, we think he came up with the idea. Apple stores did not exist at the time, so Apple sold the clothes exclusively through mail order. The clothing line was later discontinued due to what we think was poor sales.^[2]

8 Samsung—Machine Guns

When we think Samsung, we think televisions, home appliances, semiconductors, anti-Apple lawsuits and maybe exploding phones. Machine guns are one thing we definitely do not think of. This is even though Samsung actually manufactures machinegun systems for the South Korean military.

While most people do not realize, Samsung is actually an international conglomerate with interest in construction, vehicle manufacturing, theme parks, helicopter engines, hospitals, real estate, luxury hotels, textiles, chemicals, weapons and lots more. These machineguns are not your regular human-operated machineguns but artificial intelligence powered weapons capable of independently engaging enemies without a human operator.

The aptly named Samsung SGR-A1 sentry gun is the product of a joint venture between Samsung Techwin (one of Samsung’s sister companies) and Korea University. It is equipped with cameras, rangefinders, illuminators, voice recognition and a machine gun and multiple grenade launcher that allows it to automatically track, identify and engage enemies.

However, Samsung denies that the weapon will engage targets on its own. Rather, it passes information about any intruder to an operator, who determines whether it should fire or not. The weapon is currently deployed at the 250-kilometers-long Korean Demilitarized zone, which despite its name, is one of the most militarized regions of the world. There are no reports that the weapon has killed anyone yet.^[3]

7 Porsche—Honey

Porsche is renowned for its sports cars, luxury sport utility vehicles, sedans and honey. You probably did not see that last part coming. Porsche keeps bees and sells their honey. Porsche entered the beekeeping business in May 2017 when it set up a bee farm in Saxony, Germany. The farm launched with 1.5 million bees split into 25 colonies.

Those bees produced 400 kilograms of pure honey by December. Porsche put the honey in jars, slammed the name Turbienchen on them and sold them at its customer care shop in Leipzig, Germany. The honey sold out within days, prompting Porsche to add another 1.5 million bees as it attempted to double its output the following year.

Porsche did not go into the beekeeping business for money but for preservation purposes. Bees are crucial to German agriculture and are protected by law. Despite this, Germany still loses massive amounts of bees to disease and pesticide every year. In fact, Germany currently has a shortage of bees. Porsche’s is only trying to increase Germany’s bee population.^[4]

6 Cosmopolitan Magazine—Yogurt

Cosmopolitan is famed for its colorful fashion, entertainment and lifestyle magazine. However, at the turn of the century, it got famous for selling yogurt, cheese, clothes, watches, sunglasses and cafés, which it called lifestyle centers. The so-called lifestyle centers helped women keep fit and offered advice on their emotional issues.

The first pack of the aptly named Cosmopolitan yogurt (or Cosmo yogurt for short) appeared in supermarkets in 1999. Like the magazine, the yogurt and cheese were targeted at women between the ages of 15 and 44. It was low-fat and was made in partnership with MD Foods. However, the yogurt barely survived for two years before it was discontinued over poor sales.^[5]

5 Lamborghini—Off Road Vehicles

Lamborghini is world famous for its powerful and aesthetically pleasing sports cars. But did you know that Lamborghini originally made tractors? Lamborghini only started building sports cars after its founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, got into a spat with Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Lamborghini’s major competitor, Ferrari.

While Lamborghini still makes tractors, they are not the weirdest thing to have rolled out of their factories. That title should go to the odd-looking off-road vehicle called the Lamborghini LM 002. Lamborghini actually made three off-road vehicles. The first two were the Cheetah and the LM 001. Both were prototype vehicles and never made it to the market.

However, the plans of the Cheetah and the LM 001 were merged to create the LM 002, which was exhibited at the Geneva Auto Show in 1982. The LM 002 went into production four years later. In terms of power, the LM 002 was the sort of thing you would expect from Lamborghini. It was an all-wheel drive with a powerful V12 engine that went from zero to 100 km/h in just 7.8 seconds.

However, we wish we could say the same thing about the design. For one, the car looks very odd. Some standard Lamborghini features like leather seats and air conditioning were also optional. Did we also mention that it had a cargo bed?^[6]

4 Virgin Group—Virgin Cola

Sir Richard Branson has many businesses operating under his multinational conglomerate, Virgin Group. His businesses are as diverse as you can imagine. He has airlines, gyms and hotels amongst others. He also offers communications, healthcare, financial services and so on. But Sir Branson has also ventured into more unexpected terrains in the past. Like when he launched Virgin Cola in 1994.

Curiously, Virgin Cola was almost successful—until Coca-Cola ran it out of business. To be fair to Coca-Cola, Sir Branson fired the first shots when he drove an armored tank over cans of Coke to advertise his new drink. Coca-Cola executives got the message. Sir Branson wanted to displace them to become the dominant cola brand in the market.

Coca-Cola retaliated by offering mouthwatering deals to stores that stocked on Virgin Cola. In exchange, the stores stopped buying Virgin Cola and bought Coke instead. Virgin Cola sales declined everywhere except in Bangladesh where it remained popular. However, the Bangladeshi cola market was not profitable enough for Sir Branson who promptly discontinued the drink.^[7]

3Toyota—Prefabricated Homes

Toyota has been making prefabricated homes since 1975. It manufactured the homes under its Toyota Motor Corporation brand until 2004 when it was spun off to create the Toyota Housing Corporation. Like its cars, Toyota homes are very sturdy and can even withstand earthquakes. However, it is unlikely we will ever live in one since they are exclusive to Japan.

The homes do not come cheap though. They cost between $200,000 and $800,000 depending on what the buyer is getting. This made Toyota Housing Corporation set up a side business offering loans and other financial services to people interested in buying its homes. There are speculations that Toyota has sold over 250,000 homes since it got into the business.^[8]

2 Peugeot—Peppermill

Peugeot is one carmaker that has always managed to escape our attention. The French automaker rarely makes the news. When they do, it is always about their cars and never about their peppermills. That is even though Peugeot has been making peppermills long before it started building cars.

The original Peugeot was a flourmill until 1810 when it divested into the manufacture of tools, clock parts, sewing machines and other steel products. The coffee mill and peppermill followed in the 1840s. The first car came much later.

Peugeot still makes peppermills today. Its peppermills are considered one of the best in the world and are said to last for a lifetime. Interestingly, many buyers do not realize their peppermill is the product of the Peugeot motor company. This is despite the fact that the peppermills and cars share the same name and logo.^[9]

1 Sony—Insurance

Despite what you think, Sony is not an electronics company. Sony is an insurance company that makes electronics by the side. Ok! In truth, Sony is a conglomerate with interests in several businesses including music, entertainment, insurance, banking and advertising. However, Sony makes most of its profits from insurance. 63% of its profits the last time we checked.

Sony’s electronics division, which is what made Sony a household name here in the west, is currently unprofitable. Yet, the multinational would rather lose hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars yearly than sell or shut down its electronics division. As its former CEO Kazuo Hirai once said “Electronics has a future. And it is in Sony’s DNA”. Sony electronics division hopes to make a comeback someday.^[10]

Innovations in technology come all the time, and companies are continually working to improve their technology to take the lead in the marketplace. Each year, something new is introduced that changes the game, and when there’s something truly special, the world of technology is changed forever.

See Also: 10 ‘Green’ Products That Are Bad For The Environment

In the years between 2010 and 2019, there were tons of impressive gadgets, innovations to existing technologies, and inventions that captivated the marketplace. Some even went on to influence pop culture and establish itself in the zeitgeist. These ten gadgets were the most innovative of the decade, ordered from beginning to end.

10 2010: Instant Pot

Even if you don’t have an Instant Pot of your own, odds are, you have a friend or coworker who won’t stop telling you how great theirs is. The Instant Pot was released in 2010, and while it may seem like any old pressure cooker, it’s far more, and its capabilities are vast. The multifunction cooker was created by Robert Wang, a computer scientist who put up $350,000 of his savings to bring his dream to reality. The Instant Pot was an immediate success, and thanks to the word-of-mouth from food bloggers, and the ease of selling via Amazon, it quickly became one of the hottest products of the year.

Instant Pots work like slow cookers, but they can also be used to steam rice, boil dozens of eggs, cook meats, bake a cheesecake, make oatmeal, and a thousand other things you’d never expect a pressure cooker would be capable of doing. There are thousands of recipes and cookbooks available for these things, and because most only require that you dump the ingredients in and walk away, Instant Pots are taking over where conventional slow cookers and pressure cookers were years before. They tend to go on sale every so often, and now that Wang has partnered with Corelle, the gadget is going to be around for a long time.

9 2011: Nest Learning Thermostat

The Nest Learning Thermostat was introduced as one of the most innovative new thermostats ever made, and it sold like crazy. The thermostat has many of the same features now standard in other models, but in 2011, it was unheard of to have a thermostat capable of machine learning. The device is connected to the internet through a wi-fi connection, and via an algorithm, it manages to track a person’s preferences in terms of how cool or hot they like their environment. It couples this data with information related to when people are in the home, and through this, it creates a schedule designed to maximize performance, and limit energy costs by reducing the need to cool a home when nobody is present.

As of the end of the decade, six models have been introduced, all of which built upon the base model released in 2011. The Nest performed so well, it was eventually purchased by Google in January of 2014 for $3.2 billion in cash. Since then, it has been operated independently from Google’s other businesses, and the line has grown to include other smart home gadgets, including cameras, alarm systems, smoke detectors, and many other successful products.

82012: Tesla Model S

In 2012, Tesla introduced the Model S, and while it wasn’t the first electric car, it changed the way the world thought about them. Technically, the first electric vehicle was made back in the early 19th-century, but the technology was overshadowed by the rise of the internal combustion engine. Elon Musk is hoping to change that, and his line of electric vehicles, first introduced in 2009, started him on the road to becoming a car manufacturer. With the Model S’ release in 2012, the world was given a car that was a viable replacement of their standard, gas-guzzling automobiles, and the future of electric vehicles was given a solid base.

Since the Model S’ 2012 model ended up succeeding for the company, Musk has been able to continue to refine the manufacturing process, and eventually, he released additional models of cars. The 2012 Model S debuted at a whopping $75,000, which was out of the price range for most consumers, but the success of that model helped bring about the Model 3, which is far more affordable. As the technology continues to develop, costs will go down, and more people will be driving Teslas and other electric cars, thanks to the success of the 2012 Tesla Model S.

7 2013: Sony Playstation 4

The eighth-generation of consoles began in 2012 with the Wii U, but unlike its predecessor, that console failed to achieve much success, and it wasn’t until the following year that the real console competition kicked off. The PlayStation 4 (PS4) hit store shelves in November 2013, and while it was followed by the XBox One (XB1) less than two weeks later, the PS4 managed to take an impressive lead in the ongoing console war between Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. The PS4 was developed with graphics and gamers in mind, while the XB1 was designed to be a full-functioning multimedia player, which didn’t capture as many gamers as the impressive graphics and sound found on the PS4.

The console was widely acclaimed, and the differences between Sony and Microsoft’s products were significant and noticeable. The console sold remarkably well, and by September 2019, Sony had managed to sell more than 102 million PS4 consoles across the globe. The console continues to dominate the marketplace, even as Sony and its competitors are actively working on a ninth-generation replacement. In terms of total sales, the PS4 is only outmatched by the PS2, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy, which makes it the second-best-selling home console (non-handheld) of all time behind another Sony product.

6 2014: Amazon Echo

Before 2014, when people talked aloud while alone in a room, it usually meant there was something wrong with them, but that all changed when Amazon released the Echo, a smart speaker that worked much like the computer on the Starship Enterprise. The speaker wasn’t just a Bluetooth device capable of playing your favorite music; it was able to respond to vocal cues, making it a completely hands-free device. If you want to listen to The Beatles, all you had to do was say, “Alexa, play The Beatles,” and you would be singing along with John, Paul, George, and Ringo in a matter of seconds.

By the close of the decade, the Amazon Echo, and its competition from Google and other companies, is ubiquitous. Many homes feature more than one device, and it has advanced to work with phones, in cars, wall clocks, microwaves, and just about anything you never thought you needed or even wanted to be automated. The devices have had some privacy issues, but despite this, Amazon sells Echo devices consistently. In December 2019, the company offered the ability to have Samuel L. Jackson’s voice featured on the device, and he’s likely the first of many celebrity voices to come int he future.

5 2015: JUUL

Though it’s taken a severe hit in 2019 due to the medical scare of vaping coupled with the accusations of marketing the product to teenagers, the JUUL was a revolutionary device when it was released in 2015. Before the JUUL, e-cigarettes were large, complicated, and hard to use. The JUUL is simple, easy to use, fits in your pocket, and can be adapted to include pods featuring mint and fruit-flavored liquids, making it a rival to traditional combustible cigarettes. JUUL was a product that changed an industry, and whatever a person’s thoughts on that industry may be, it represented a significant advancement.

The JUUL’s value on the marketplace was estimated at nearly $24 billion in 2019, and despite the ongoing issues in 2019, the company will likely continue to succeed in the marketplace. JUUL’s mission is “to provide the world’s one billion adult smokers with a true alternative to combustible cigarettes,” and there’s no denying that’s exactly what JUUL did when it was released in 2015. The company has vowed to fight the issues related to youth smoking in regards to its products and is likely to be around for a long time.

4 2016: Apple Airpods

Apple has always been about innovation, and while the company has spent the better part of two decades working to revolutionize the cellphone and tablet markets, that doesn’t mean it isn’t also focused on peripheral devices. In 2016, Apple announced that the iPhone 7 was losing its headphone jack, a feature of cellphones for decades and that its users wouldn’t need it any longer. The company announced Apple AIrpods on the same day, and there’s little wonder why. Apple Airpods weren’t just a new type of headphones; they were the only headphones Apple wanted its customers to buy.

Apple Airpods are entirely wireless, and while some mocked the concept of separating the left and right earpiece for fear of losing one, they proved immensely popular among consumers. The sound quality on them is superior to many comparable models. Advancements have been made since 2016, and subsequent models feature noise cancellation, a more comfortable in-ear fit, and wireless charging. One again, Apple revolutionized the marketplace, and the company did it with a product that has been around for decades in one form or another.

3 2017: Nintendo Switch

Nintendo has been an innovative company for most of its existence. After all, it initially made playing cards in the 19th-century but went on to save the video game industry in the 1980s. Since that time, the company has attempted numerous advancements in technology and play-style with products that flopped—the Power Glove—and products that dominated the industry, such as the Wii. The successor to that console failed miserably, but the one that came after, the Nintendo Switch, once more took a hold in the marketplace with new technology and a product the fans immediately embraced.

The Nintendo Switch is unlike any console that came before it. It isn’t just a home console like all the Nintendo home products that came before it; it’s portable. Players can lift it out of its docking cradle and seamlessly continue playing their game on the road. They can swap out controllers, drop it in another console anywhere int he world, and continue playing. It also features multimedia playback and isn’t limited to family-friendly games like most Nintendo consoles. The Nintendo Switch’s game library includes most of the AAA titles released on the PS4 and XB1.

2 2018: Mars Translation Earbuds

Apple innovated the marketplace in 2016 with the Apple Airpods, but that was just the beginning of wireless earbuds, and the technology has only advanced since that time. Mars Translation Earbuds are exactly what the name implies, and while there have been attempts to create earbuds capable of translating the spoken language instantly, those results were less than extraordinary. These new devices work almost perfectly, as they can take in someone’s speech, and instantly translate it into a person’s ear, but that’s not all they can do.

You can separate them, and hand one of the earbuds over to the person you’re communicating with. So, if you approach someone who only speaks Russian while you can only speak English, just hand one over, and they will hear your words in their native tongue while you will hear theirs in yours. The technology does need some tweaks and improvements, but they are definitely a game-changer for anyone who travels for business, diplomats who need to communicate for their job, and even members of the military working in foreign countries.

1 2019: Oculus Quest

Virtual Reality gaming has been slowly creeping into the marketplace since the 1980s, and it’s been a rough ride. The technology wasn’t capable of supporting many experiences until the development of products like the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift, but those headsets are somewhat bulky and require a powerful PC to run. The need to pair the Rift and other headsets with a powerful computer meant a player needed to spend thousands of dollars to play anything of value, and that made it difficult for the products to take up more than a niche in the video game marketplace. Fortunately, everything changed with the release of the Oculus Quest.

The Quest wasn’t the second or even the third headset released by Oculus, but it was the first that didn’t require a computer, needed no cables, and could run pretty much every piece of VR software on the market. The ability to take VR anywhere you wanted to go without the need to place barrier equipment or plug it into a computer changed the world of virtual reality forever. This impressive portable technology will only be improved upon in the future, so expect more advanced, lighter, smaller, and better compact VR gear in the future.

Many times each year, some companies are forced to recall products due to some critical flaw in their design or a problem they did not foresee. For example, a drug might have an unexpected side effect, some food could have been contaminated, or a children’s toy found to contain small or sharp pieces. These days, the word can spread about such problems quickly, leading to a swift resolution in many cases.

Most people can understand these accidental and unforeseen problems when they happen in real time. But in retrospect, it is difficult not to wonder what those companies were thinking. Nowhere is this more evident than in the early and middle 20th century, when there was a trend of putting radioactive elements in all kinds of products. What follows are some of the most puzzling and strange examples of everyday products that used to contain radioactive chemicals.

Related: Top 10 Fascinating Stories Involving Nuclear Explosions

10 Energy Drinks

While many countries today rely on nuclear power to produce energy, the association between radioactive chemicals and energy has been drawn since the early 20th century. But rather than powering homes and cities, people first tried to use them to power themselves. Those who wanted to put a bit of extra pep in their step in 1920s America could buy a bottle of RadiThor. Essentially, this was radium dissolved in water and marketed as a sort of medicinal energy drink. It claimed to cure several problems, one of which was impotence.

The supposed evidence for this came from a study on the romantic lives of water newts. Unbelievably, people were sucked in, and RadiThor sold very well despite the effects of radium already being known at the time. Luckily, RadiThor was expensive, so its sales mainly came from a small number of wealthy people, and there was no big public health crisis. However, it was shut down by the government in 1932.^[1]

9 Chapatis

The general public in the 1920s may not have been widely aware of the effects of radiation. However, the Second World War showed much of the world its dangers. This means ignorance is no excuse in a shocking case from Coventry, UK, during the 1960s. There was concern at the time about the large number of South Asian women in the country who were anemic, and their diet was thought to be responsible. In 1969, around 21 women from South Asian backgrounds participated in a study to test this.

The women were sent chapatis to eat, which contained a type of radiation-emitting iron. Researchers could measure how much iron the women absorbed by monitoring their radiation levels. The scientists concluded that the flour in chapatis was insoluble, so Asian women should take extra iron. That was the last people heard about it until 1995 when a documentary questioned whether the women were able to give their consent. An inquiry in 1998 found that the study did not meet modern ethical standards, and in 2023, politicians renewed calls for more to be done to locate the women and investigate the long-term effects.^[2]

8 Toothpaste

People today often describe warm, friendly smiles as “radiant,” but this took on a different meaning in early 20th-century Germany. Around the start of the century, a giant chemical company called Auergesellschaft had a main business making lanterns. To make their lanterns brighter, they made them with a radioactive metal called thorium. Some thorium was left over after each batch of lanterns had been made, and rather than dispose of it, someone in the company had the bright idea of using it in toothpaste.

It was first given to German soldiers before World War I, but it was not until after the Second World War that the company planned to mass market its Doramad thorium oxide toothpaste. Sensing that the war was ending, which would also end their sales of war items such as gas masks, they were looking to enter the cosmetics business after seeing how well it had been growing in the U.S. They knew that its toothpaste was radioactive, but they actually used this to help sell it. They claimed it would help kill germs and increase circulation in the gums.^[3]

7 Suppositories

The mouth is not the only orifice for which radioactive products were designed. For those who wanted the supposed benefits of radiation but did not enjoy the taste of the products on the market, the Home Products Company out of Denver, Colorado, had a solution. In the 1920s, they began selling a 15-day course of Vita Radium Suppositories. The packaging promised that the “perfectly harmless” products were guaranteed to contain real radium, which they claimed would help men get back their “manly vigor” and “bubble over with joyous vitality.”

It was mostly marketed as a cure for impotence, although there was little that the company did not claim that it could do for men. This was because they believed the radium was absorbed into the blood and carried to every organ. Once there, it would provide a much-needed dose of energy to revitalize them. This turned out to be nonsense, and some skeptical doctors expressed their disbelief at the time.^[4]

6 Radioendocrinator

Some inventors understood that radiation could enter the body from the outside, with no need to be ingested or otherwise inserted into the body at all to have an effect. They were right, but sadly unaware or negligent of the potential harm. One example of this was the Radiendocrinator, a credit card-sized device that contained radium. According to one advertisement, men were supposed to wear it at night by inserting it into an adapter that could then be worn like a jockstrap.

Other promotional materials showed both men and women with the device strapped to various places on their bodies, such as their head, neck, and back. For a 1920s product, it was extremely expensive. When it first went to market, the price was $1,000. It later sold for as little as $150, still a hefty price tag for the time. The company was closed in 1930.^[5]

5 Face Creams and Powders

Like “radiant” smiles, the go-to word to describe healthy and beautiful skin is usually “glowing.” The process of improving one’s looks is even called a “glow up,” but thankfully, this is no longer taken as literally as it was in France in the first half of the 20th century. The most famous brand from that time that made use of the association between glowing, beauty, and health was Tho-Radia. They sold face creams and powders with radium in them, and the formula was attributed to a man named Alfred Curie, who also sat on the board.

His name lent credibility to the company, but he was not actually related to Marie and Pierre Curie at all, and they even thought about suing the company because of this. It was claimed that Tho-Radia would activate circulation and make wrinkles disappear, among other things. In 1937, the French government clamped down on products containing thorium and radium. In response, Alfred Curie left Tho-Radia, and the ingredients were no longer added to their items. The brand continued to exist until the early 1960s.^[6]

4 Cigarette Plates

As if cigarettes were not bad enough for people already, somebody in 1980s Japan had the idea of adding radiation into the toxic mix. The NAC Plate was a small metal plate containing 4% thorium, and its manufacturer claimed that people could reduce the harmful effects of smoking by holding the plate to the outside of a cigarette pack. Around 1982, somebody tried to sell the devices in the USA, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stopped it because thorium could only be sold for commercial use and could not be sold to the public.

The agency also said in a letter that their staff did not believe the product could possibly work. Any alpha particles emitted by the thorium would have been absorbed by the cigarette packaging. They cannot even pass through something as thin as a piece of paper. On the bright side, it meant that the NAC Plate could not have made smoking any more dangerous than it was anyway.^[7]

3 Comforters

Looking back, it seems strange that anyone could market radiation as healthy and safe after the Second World War. However, the long-term effects must have taken some time to reveal themselves because, in the 1950s, there was a resurgence of products containing uranium and other dangerous ingredients. Among the products that came to market in that decade were the Gra-Maze Uranium Comforter and the Cosmos Radioactive Pad. These were marketed using claims that they helped people’s health and could relieve arthritis and other aches and pains.

The Gra-Maze was basically a copy of a 1920s comforter, which was said to contain radium but was actually filled with plain soil. However, the Gra-Maze really had uranium in it. The opening of many mines around that time suddenly caused these items to become popular again. In the end, the federal government stepped in and stopped the production of the comforter and other things like it.^[8]

2 Embalming Fluid

There were plenty of scammers in the business world of the early 20th century. For example, the 1920s version of the Gra-Maze comforter that did not contain the radium like it said it did was sold by a man named J. Bernard King. King was forced to wind up his business due to his false claims. Other companies did not specifically claim that their product contained radioactive chemicals but instead hinted at the idea that they did.

One case in point is “Esco Radium Liquid Sunshine Embalming Fluid.” The optimistically named preservative was not known to have any real radium inside. It seems it wanted to plant the idea in people’s minds that even in death, they or their loved ones could look glowing, healthy, and alive. It claimed to be more powerful than any other embalming fluid.^[9]

1 Water Bottles

If anyone was wondering when society finally came to its senses and left all of this messing around with dangerous radioactive chemicals behind, the answer is surprising—it was recently. As late as 2005, a company called Nakano Tec Co., Ltd. from Japan was manufacturing a product called the Well Aqua water bottle. This product contained a small amount of thorium in a small metal cylinder inside the bottle.

Thorium was one of a host of other ingredients that the company claimed could get rid of chlorine and make tap water taste nicer. The resulting “live water,” as they called it, was meant to be like drinking fresh water directly from national parks. The cylinder was bigger than the top of the bottle to prevent it from being swallowed by accident, and the bottles were designed to last around a year with monthly cleaning.^[10]

Some of us will carefully check the labels on most of the products we use, scrutinizing them to see if we can find some suspicious ingredients listed. The rest of us do not care and just use these products anyway. But how would you feel if you discovered that your food or body lotion contained human body parts?

Sure, you would cringe. Well! It used to be the norm a few centuries ago—at a time when products did not have ingredient labels. Many people unwittingly turned cannibal after ingesting food items made from human remains. Others just used regular products that contained human remains without being aware of it.

More products containing human secretions and body parts are still being developed today. But fear not! You will probably not be ingesting food made from human body parts without knowing about it.

10 Paint

Mummy brown was a thing a few centuries ago. Also called mommia and momie, it was actually the name of a brown paint used by artists. As you should have guessed, the paint was made from Egyptian mummies. Manufacturers created it by grinding mummies into powder and mixing them with some other stuff.

Mummy brown first appeared in the 16th century and quickly became a favorite of artists, who used it in their paintings as if it were just another paint. Interestingly, some manufacturers also made it from any corpse that had mummified enough. French artist Martin Drolling even used mummy brown made from dead French kings.

The use of mummy brown declined in the 20th century when most artists discovered its origin. However, it only went “extinct” in 1964 after manufacturers could not get fresh supplies of mummies to make the paint.^[1]

9 Medicine

A few centuries ago, many Europeans turned into unwitting cannibals after consuming medicines made with the bones, blood, and fats of living and dead people.

People of the day believed that these medicines cured a wide range of ailments. Skulls were ground into powder to make medicine for almost every problem with the head. Usnea, a moss that often appeared on buried human skulls, was used to stop nosebleeds and cure epilepsy.

Body fat was applied to the skin to cure medical problems like gout. Bandages were also soaked in fat before they were used to cover wounds. Egyptians mummies were not spared, either. They were ground into powder to produce a medicine that supposedly cured internal bleeding.

People without any medical issues also used the medicines due to the erroneous belief that the healthiness of the dead could be passed to them. One such believer was the English King Charles II, who drank a mixture of ground human skull and alcohol to maintain his health. The drink was called “the king’s drops.”

Fresh blood from a living person was also added to cooked food or just drunk to remain healthy. Many poor people who could not afford a living human’s blood often attended public executions with cups to siphon fresh blood from the executed person.

The act of using human body parts as medicine reached its height between the 16th and 17th centuries and started to die down in the 18th century. It had disappeared by the 20th century.^[2]

8 Diamonds

Within the last few years, several businesses have sprung up, offering to turn the cremated remains of our dead relatives and animals into diamonds—or as they prefer to call them, “memorial diamonds.” The process works because diamond is made of carbon, which is the second-most plentiful element in our bodies.

The process begins with the cremation. The human body produces several pounds of ashes after cremation. However, this is often filled with impurities, which are removed when the ash is cleaned with acid.

The carbon is 99 percent pure at this point but still contains around 1 percent of a few other elements like boron. That boron is often left alone because it has nearly identical properties to carbon, which makes them difficult to separate. However, the boron content makes the diamond blue. The more boron, the bluer it is.

Interestingly, diamonds made from people who underwent chemotherapy while alive are often lighter than diamonds made from people who did not. This occurs because chemotherapy often reduces the boron content of the body.^[3]

7 Food

Scientists at Pennsylvania State University are already working on converting our poop and urine to food. This diet is not intended for regular people but for astronauts, especially those who will travel on long-term space voyages to, say, Mars.

The scientists made the food by anaerobic digestion, a process in which microbes break down waste without using oxygen. In this instance, a first group of microbes is added to poop and urine to produce methane. That methane is then fed to a second group of microbes.

The result is a consumable substance that contains 52 percent protein and 36 percent fats. The diet is free of diseases because the microbes work so quickly that dangerous pathogens do not have time to form. The invention has not been released yet because the scientists are still working on it.^[4]

6 Lampshade

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans. While most people went back to salvage whatever was left of their homes after the disaster, others like Raymond Henderson found something interesting: a lampshade made from human skin.

Henderson was checking out a flood-soaked drum set at a yard sale a few months after the hurricane. The seller said that he had a lamp along with its 25-centimeter-long (10 in) lampshade made from the “skin of Jews.”

Although skeptical at first, Henderson purchased the lampshade for $35 and took it home where he carefully inspected it. He discovered that it was real human skin. He could even see the wrinkles and pores on the dried skin. He later sent it to a lab where it was confirmed to be human skin.

There are suspicions that the lampshade was made by the Nazis during World War II even though there is no definite evidence of its origin. The ethnicity of the skin owner could not be tested, either, because the product was too dry to contain traceable DNA samples.^[5]

5 Books

On the shelves of Harvard University library sits a book titled Des Destinees de l’Ame (“Destinies of the Soul”). The brown, dusty, and aged cover will make most people think that it is a regular book—until they realize the cover is actually brown, dusty, and aged human skin. Anthropodermic bibliopegy, the practice of using human skin for bookbinding, was common in ancient times.

Des Destinees de l’Ame was written by Arsene Houssaye, who gave it to one Dr. Ludovic Bouland sometime in the 1880s. It was Dr. Bouland who added the human skin cover. He had gotten the skin from a woman who died at a mental hospital.

Another anthropodermic bibliopegy book sits at the M Shed museum in Bristol, UK. On the cover are the words Cutis Vera Johannis Horwood (“The Actual Skin of John Horwood”). The book is owned by the Bristol Record Office. The infamous pirate skull-and-crossbones insignia is also etched onto the cover.

As the title already hints, the book was made from the skin of John Horwood, who was executed at age 18 for killing Eliza Balsum after falling in love with her. Horwood threw a stone at Balsum and almost broke her skull. Balsum survived the attack but later died of her injuries.^[6]

Horwood was tried and executed for the murder. His remains were sent to anatomy schools for dissection, and his skeleton was later put into storage. The skeleton was discovered and buried by Mary Halliwell 190 years after his hanging. Horwood was Halliwood’s great-great-great-grandfather’s brother. The book itself contains details of the murder.

4 Boiled Eggs

Some Chinese people believe that eggs boiled in the urine of young boys have medicinal properties. The eggs are called tong zi dan (“virgin boy eggs”). They are a thing in Dongyang in Zhejiang Province, China, where they are sold on the roadside. Consumers claim that the eggs cure or prevent a myriad of ailments.

The eggs are made by boiling regular chicken eggs in urine. It is a two-step process. The eggs are first boiled in urine. Then they are removed, cracked, and returned to the pot to continue boiling. This allows the urine to seep into the egg, altering its look and taste. While some consumers swear by its efficacy, others think it is just gross.

The egg vendors often visit schools with buckets for young schoolchildren to pee into. The vendor later recovers the pee-filled buckets to make the eggs. However, they often ask sick students not to pee in the buckets to ensure that they only end up with healthy urine and eggs.^[7]

3 Cosmetics

In 2005, The Guardian exposed an unnamed Chinese cosmetics company for using the skin of prisoners executed in China as an ingredient in its beauty products. The company planned to ship the cosmetics to Europe where they would be sold to unsuspecting buyers.

According to The Guardian, the company had informed prospective partners about a new beauty product created with the skin of executed prisoners. The company claimed that the product could clear wrinkles on the skin and lips. The Guardian added that the company had already shipped some of the products into the UK at the time of the report.

An unnamed agent of the company who had earlier bragged about the existence of the product later retracted his statement when The Guardian asked him for an interview. He had earlier revealed the existence of the product to an undercover researcher pretending to be a businessman.^[8]

The Guardian added that skin from executed prisoners is sometimes used in beauty products sold in China. The Chinese government supposedly knows about this but looks the other way as long as the companies keep it a secret. However, there are concerns that European users could be susceptible to infections from the executed criminals.

2 Bricks

In 2018, South African scientists revealed that they had developed a process to make bricks from human urine. The process actually allows them to create any solid substance from urine, but they seem to prefer making bricks instead.

The scientists created the bricks using bacteria, sand, urine, and calcium. First, they add bacteria to sand to create an enzyme called urease. Then they add the urease to urine. The urease decomposes the urea in the urine, leaving a hard, rocky substance called calcium carbonate.

This calcium carbonate is used to make the bricks or whatever else the scientists want to create. Fertilizer is a by-product, which makes sense as urea is synthesized to manufacture fertilizer across the globe.

Urine bricks are not on the market yet because researchers are still trying to perfect the process. Besides, they are also concerned about the source of their urine. A single brick needs approximately 20 liters (5 gal) of urine to produce. The average adult will require a few weeks to pass that much urine.^[9]

1 Perfume

A few years ago, Katia Apalategui’s mother lost her husband. She missed her husband so much that she often smelled the pillowcase he used before his death just so she could remember him. Katia Apalategui soon got some ideas and decided to make a perfume that smelled just like a dead person.^[10]

Apalategui teamed with chemist Geraldine Savary of the University of Le Havre in France to create a method of retrieving odor from the belongings of a dead person and using it to make a perfume. Apalategui has her product in the market already. Each bottle of perfume is custom-made and costs $600.

Celebrity endorsements can make a product. For a famous person in need of a little cash endorsements can be a life, or at least bank balance, saver. Sometimes the endorsements make absolutely no sense – Ozzy Osbourne’s advert for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter was hardly rock and roll. But if the item being sold matches up with a celebrity’s brand then there can be big bucks made all round. If celebrity sells and sex sells then would could be bigger than mashing the two together? Here are ten times musicians got down and dirty with the sex industry.

SEE ALSO: 10 Sex Toys With Ridiculously Ancient Origins

10 Rammstein Penises

The German hard rock band Rammstein is not one to shy away from sensitive areas. Their 2009 video for the song Pussy featured rather more flesh and sexual intercourse than American music videos would be allowed to put on display. Coming from the album ‘Liebe ist fur alle da’ – Love is for everyone – the song was a sign of where the band would be going next. They decided to release a special box set for the album, not an unusual merchandising strategy, but they included non-stand items in the hand-crafted case. Like handcuffs, lubricant, and six pink plastic dildos in various shapes and sizes. “Size does matter, after all,” as they sang in Pussy.

The boxset could be bought with either the censored or uncensored version of the album, for those perhaps not expecting rude words from a box of sex toys. In Germany the album could not be displayed in shops after a court ruled it was damaging to youths.^[1]

Despite rumors that the six dildos in the special edition were modeled on the band members’ members it appears this is just an urban legend – unless someone with more intimate knowledge knows better.

9 JLS Condoms

The boy band JLS emerged from the UK version of the X-factor in 2008 after coming second to Alexandra Burke. Of the two however it was JLS who proved to have the staying power racking up several number ones. Being socially responsible the band decided to partner with the condom maker Durex to release their own range of branded condoms.^[2]

As the boys said at the time “it’s important to put your love in a glove.” They decided to repurpose the JLS of their name to make it stand for Just Love Safe.

Each box featured the face of one of the four stars which led to an impromptu popularity contest. Ashton is apparently the one people pick when it comes to safe sex. Those looking to colour code their loving were please to know that each of the pop stars’ condoms came in a different color.

8 Safaree Samuels’ Anaconda

Safaree Samuels is a rapper and songwriter perhaps best known for dating Nicki Minaj for over a decade. Or at least he was most famous for that until his name started trending on Twitter in 2018. Safaree’s nudes had leaked and the internet was going wild. Some suggested that the rapper had been behind the leak of the explicit photos. If he was looking for publicity then it worked.^[3]

This year however he sought to use his internet fame, as well as other of his attributes, to make some hard cash. A replica of the much seen penis can now be bought. Called Safaree’s Anaconda the object comes in at 12 inches long so buyers will be getting plenty of bang for their buck. While some people might be cautious about their purchase Safaree’s current girlfriend said “I’m so excited for you ladies!”

7 Daft Punk condoms

When musician Diplo posted a picture of an empty box of condoms on his Instagram he did what everyone does after sex – he thanked Daft Punk. This was around the time of the release of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ but Diplo was not just talking about the aphrodisiac powers of the bands tune. The condoms he was so ostentatiously showing off were branded with an image of the band and the name of their hit. Someone had got lucky indeed.^[4]

But it soon turned out that rumours of Daft Punk getting into the condom business were premature. Durex denied going into partnership with the band. The condoms were just a promotional item being given away by their record company’s PR. Daft Punk have never spoken about how they feel about being linked in the public imagination to Diplo’s penis but Durex were thrilled. “We do hope that by using Durex condoms, music-lovers will continue to make sweet music together and have great sex!”

6 Dave Stewart’s vibrator

The Eurythmics has some huge hits in the 80s and have reunited several times since their first split to put out new albums. But it does seem as if there have been things other than music on Dave Stewart’s mind. In 2008 it was announced that his song Let’s Do It Again would be available free of charge to those who bought a vibrator inscribed with lyrics from the song – probably for those who get excited by reading.^[5]

This was to be no ordinary sex toy however. For a start it would cost £1000, making the free song seem like less of a bargain. To account for the high price it should be noted that it comes tipped with 28 round-cut black diamonds. Since there is not much light in its intended using spot the diamonds don’t really need to sparkly anyway. For those worried that they don’t get enough use from their toys the vibrator came with a leather cord that meant you could wear it around your neck. It also came with a pick in case you wanted to strum your guitar. Or anything else.

5 Mötley Crüe’s motley crew

Mötley Crüe have always had girls, girls, girls on their mind so it is no wonder that they are always looking for ways to please them. Alongside Lovehoney – “The sexual happiness people ” – the band created a set of eight “powerful” vibrators. Coming in a range of sizes, colors, and with either 7 or 10 functions, the vibrators have names paying tribute to the band’s classic songs. Some, like like Dr Feelgood, hint at the pleasures that await while others, “Too fast for love,” perhaps hint at thwarted passion.

While the makers say that the “eye-catching vibes capture the style and sex appeal of the band perfectly,” some might quibble at the verisimilitude of the wares on offer. If these capture the appearance of the members then there may be many anatomical questions to answer.^[6]

4 The Vibrators’ Vibrator

Sometimes an endorsement is just too perfect to pass up. When persona and product overlap completely you would be a fool not to take the money. When Lovehoney started working with the punk-rock group The Vibrators there was only one product they could possibly make – a Buzzin Bullet Vibrator. And being a punk group it of course had to come in a box shaped like a Union Jack draped coffin.^[7]

The Buzzin Bullet was touted as the first official mash up of musician and sex toy. For years the band had been told they should make money off their name by releasing their own vibrators and when the Buzzin Bullet finally did make its way onto their merchandise stands at concerts they flew off the shelves and into buyers’ hands. And other places. The band thanked Lovehoney, calling them “a company who know so much about the band and who have the right, fun attitude to the product—a good coming together you could say.”

3 Motorhead’s motorised head

Motorhead have been toying with sex toys for a long time. On their 1977 debut album they released their song Vibrator that had such catchy lyrics as:

“I’m really starting to buzz,
Your feeling comes, I’m starting to hum,
I can do it like nothing else does.”

Vibrators were an obvious collaboration choice then for the rockers. They began by releasing four fairly dull looking tubes emblazoned with names from their hit-list like “Ace of Spades” and “Born to lose” as well as just their name. But the band must have been doing something right with their merchandise as they soon came out with three new toys for their range.^[8]

The additions to the range included a vibrating glass wand, two solid glass dildos shaped like bombs and a War-Pig topped with a model of their Snaggletooth mascot. One member of the band cautioned users “Just like the band, our products are EXTREME! Enjoy with care.”

2 Ghost B.C.

The Swedish band Ghost, also known as Ghost B.C. in the USA for legal reasons, is a hard rock group that does not mess around when it comes to sex play. Why merely be deviant when you can also be blasphemous at the same time? The band’s Phallos Mortuus Ritual box set comes with everything you might need to get a party started.^[9]

Inside a book-shaped box lined with red velvet you get one bronze-effect butt-plug with the band’s Grucifix symbol on the base, one dildo finished with the head of one of the band member’s dressed as a bishop, and divorce certificate – just in case things go wrong probably.

The box set comes in a range of sizes to suit all needs from Men’s Small to Men’s Extra, Extra Large.

1 Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson lives to shock people out of their tired assumptions and passivity. Certainly one way to shock someone would be to yank out Manson’s own product – a dildo with his face on it.^[10]

Called the Double Cross dildo it features the singer’s name embossed on the shaft but you probably won’t notice that as long as his face is peering into your soul. Described on Manson’s website as “soft, lifelike,” it does make you wonder which part of the singer it most resembles. It does come with a black velvet bag so when you are done with it you do not have to face Manson looking back at you for long.

Helpfully the product is described as “wipe clean” and the paint used to create Manson’s face is environmentally safe. Unfortunately the face itself “May fade with multiple uses.”

The world isn’t perfect, so there will always be a certain number of tragedies that could be prevented. But in some cases, they are caused by glaring errors that could easily be stopped by the slightest degree of attention. When it comes to medicine and treatment, there are many safeguards to keep tainting and infections from happening. But in the following instances, contamination still happened.

10 Antibiotic-Resistant Duodenoscopes

Duodenoscopes are devices that are supposed to drain fluid from pancreatic and bile ducts. However, they are unruly when it comes to sterilization. The scopes have a sort of elevator-like movement which allows them to move within the body, draining fluid as needed. As a result, cleaning the scope is quite laborious. Although any good medical professional would clean such instruments, many did not—which was a mistake that proved deadly.

In 2016, two people in the Chicago area died from a bacterial disease that had been popping up around the United States. From 2012 to 2015, around 250 people were infected with this same illness, which had resulted from a flaw in the same machine: the duodenoscope.

The manufacturers of the scope never actually tested cleaning the device in a real-world setting. In turn, this caused a bacteria to spread that otherwise wouldn’t have developed if the instruments were properly sterilized. The illness that spread was a superbug called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE).

CRE is an incredibly deadly family of bacteria that kills half of the people who become infected and is resistant to even the most potent antibiotics. CRE and similarly drug-resistant E. coli outbreaks occurred throughout the US and even across Europe in France and Germany. Because they failed to disclose the scope’s failings, the three producers—Olympus, Pentax, and Fujifilm—were investigated by the FDA and hospitals were warned not to use these products.

9 Drug-Laced Diet Supplements

In 2013, a dietary supplement known as Dr. Larry’s Tranquility pills were tested by the FDA. The pills were supposed to cause sleep naturally by using substances such as figwort root and licorice. Out of thousands of other pills that claimed similar results, Dr. Larry’s Tranquility pills were tested and found to contain a lot more than claimed. There were powerful prescription drugs in them.

Two powerful sedatives were found in the pills: Thorazine, a potent antipsychotic, and doxepin, an antidepressant and sleeping medication. Dr. Larry was not a doctor at all but a convicted felon. Larry LeGunn, his real name, was a chiropractor whose license was taken away in 2010 for grand theft and insurance fraud.

He was not the only person to use strong drugs to sell diet supplements, though. Jeffrey Bolanos, who had an extensive history with drugs like crack cocaine and methamphetamine, became head of an Arizona company called Beamonstar Products. Three of the company’s sexual enhancement pills actually contained tadalafil, a main ingredient in the prescription drug Cialis. Later, the products were recalled by the company.

In 2009, another company, Kilo Sports, sold “natural” performance-enhancing drugs, only they weren’t natural. They contained steroids, and another was found to have anti-estrogen substances in 2010. Apparently, in 2004, Martin McDermott, the head of Kilo, had several criminal charges filed against him related to felony possession of testosterone, boldenone, and human growth hormones. He apparently used these drugs to illegally “boost” products that he sold over the years.

8 Bayer’s HIV Blood Plasma

In 2003, after an investigation by The New York Times, it was shown that Cutter Biological, a unit of pharmaceutical company Bayer, engaged in controversial business practices in the 1980s that resulted in the spread of HIV among hemophiliacs overseas. Allegedly, in response to complaints about a medicine sold by Cutter, they produced a newer, safer one in 1984. The only problem is that they didn’t stop selling the dangerous, older product in other countries.

The product sold was called Factor VIII Concentrate, and it was produced from 10,000 donors’ blood plasma to help with the treatment of hemophiliacs. However, the donor plasma was not tested for HIV at the time since there was very little awareness of the disease. Because of this, the hemophiliacs who used the product contracted HIV.

In February 1984, the product was reformulated and the old product was supposedly taken off the market. However, according to company records, they continued to sell the drug in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and Argentina. Cutter claimed that they did so because customers there doubted the new drug’s effectiveness and a shortage of plasma made creating the new product much harder.

When Hong Kong distributors became interested in the product in late 1984, Cutter told them to use the infected product before using the new formulation. Because of this, around 100 hemophiliacs contracted HIV. The fact that the infected product was still marketed in Asia and other less developed countries caused many customers to accuse Bayer of racial discrimination.

Later, Bayer quietly began to pay off foreign lawsuits related to the product. After the reports became public, Bayer sold their blood plasma business in October 2003.

7 Metal-Tainted Children’s Medication

In May 2009, Johnson & Johnson, the company that manufactures a variety of medications including Children’s Tylenol and Children’s Motrin, began to receive complaints about black specks inside bottles of medication. All the medication had been produced from McNeil’s plant in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. When the black specks were examined, they were found to be the metals nickel, iron, and chromium.

The medications were liquid and potentially deadly. In April 2010, Johnson & Johnson began a voluntary recall of the medications. The McNeil plant had been plagued with recalls since 2009, and the FDA later sourced the contamination to machinery used during production.

Despite the company discovering the metal particles around this, they continued to produce and sell liquid medication for several months afterward. In 2009, a death occurred due to the tainted medicine: Joshua Arndt, four years old, died after being given one dose of Children’s Tylenol. Although he was rushed to the emergency room, there was nothing that doctors could do to help him.

In 2012, his father filed a lawsuit. But it was dismissed in 2014 because the two-year statute of limitations had passed. Johnson & Johnson did not go without punishment, though. In 2015, charges were brought against the company because they had knowingly sold the medication months after they learned that it was dangerous.

In the end, they had to pay $25 million to settle their legal problems. As for the McNeil plant where the medication was produced, the entire plant was demolished and rebuilt.

6 Deadly Heparin

In 2008, the blood thinner heparin was in such demand in the United States—around 300,000 doses a day—that producers in China began to engage in increasingly shady practices to meet it. Usually, heparin is produced from pig intestines. But according to the FDA, some Chinese producers were making it from cow and sheep intestines, which allowed for the spread of sicknesses unseen in the past.

According to doctors, the main symptom of the contaminated heparin was dangerously low blood pressure, and it was noticed in hospitals and by patients across the United States. By late 2008, 81 deaths had already been linked to the drug. What made this already disturbing situation even worse was the fact that the bad drug made its way through multiple screenings and finally onto the market.

When Baxter International, the distributor of half of all the heparin in the United States, discovered this, they issued an immediate recall. While officials at first believed that only the United States was affected by these contaminations, it became clear that even more countries had received the bad heparin. Eleven countries soon reported similar cases of heparin causing harm.

The contamination was caused by the chemical oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, which is created from non-pig material. Despite Chinese officials claiming that the heparin was not tainted, the FDA managed to trace the heparin to 12 Chinese producers. After this revelation, reforms were made among these companies.

Even though the FDA had been suspicious about Chinese practices since 2007, it wasn’t until 2012 that they began to create serious guidelines. Around 246 deaths have been traced to the heparin since 2007, and it’s believed that some of the contaminated drug may still be on the market nearly a decade later.

5 Bacteria-Infected IV Bags

In 2011, 19 people at six hospitals in Alabama became ill for a very specific reason: Their IV bags had been infected by Serratia marcescens bacteremia, a type of bacteria which can prove fatal when it enters the bloodstream. Many of the patients infected by the bacteria were high-risk patients who were given intravenous feeding because they were too sick to eat on their own.

The outbreak began at several Birmingham area hospitals in Alabama in March 2011. Soon, 19 people became ill, and nine of them would eventually die. The bacteria caused almost immediate effects upon entering the bloodstream, including blood pressure and temperature changes. However, once the surviving patients were treated, they managed to recover.

But this wasn’t the only time that infections in IV bags would cause illness in patients. In Minnesota, a series of painkiller thefts by nurses at hospitals would eventually cause infections in the patients. At St. Cloud Hospital, several patients who were supposed to get painkillers were actually given saltwater.

This caused rare bacterial infections in 25 patients. Six of them ended up in intensive care, and one died. Blake Zenner, a nurse who stole painkillers from 2010 to 2011, was found to be responsible for the outbreak and was finally caught in 2012.

4 Meningitis And Mold Steroid Shots

In 2011, the New England Compounding Center began sending out shipments of steroids that were infected with meningitis and fungus. Within a year, the CDC would estimate that 14,000 people had been exposed to the infected steroids. Meningitis could be contracted from the shots along with a mold that could incubate for months. The epidemic spread across 16 states and would infect hundreds of people.

The steroid involved was a formulation of methylprednisolone for injection, and it was tainted by a rare black fungus called Exserohilum rostratum that usually only affects plants. It’s so rare in humans that its incubation wasn’t even known at the time of the outbreak. However, within a year, 268 cases of fungal meningitis, three cases of fungal joint infections, and 21 deaths were reported that were related to the steroid shots.

While most of those with fungal infections reported incubation periods of a few weeks to two months, it was also known that the infections could incubate for several months. So even after the steroid shots were recalled, those who took them could still get sick.

A similar outbreak of fungal meningitis occurred in 2002 with the same type of steroids. This taught valuable lessons about the manufacturing of these substances. Without stringent standards when it comes to mixing them, it was found that fungus grows aggressively, which caused the two outbreaks.

In 2013, the number of fungal meningitis cases was 751 and there were 64 deaths. Even a full year after the outbreak, people still required treatment, which shows just how dangerous a lack of attention can be in the medical world.

3 Deadly Dirty Syringes

Safety with syringes is commonplace for most patients and professionals: Syringes shouldn’t be reused or shared. But what happens when the people who make the syringes have accidentally contaminated them? This occurred in 2007 when over 100 people became sick with bacterial infections related to the use of contaminated saline syringes that were produced by the same company.

To keep such outbreaks from occurring, there are multiple safety checks that should be put into place by companies. But even after that, the FDA itself examines medical products. In the case of the syringes, evidence shows that the FDA failed to catch the contamination.

The syringes, prefilled with saline, were examined by an FDA inspector before they were shipped out in October 2007. According to the report, the inspector found black, brown, and red particles in the syringes but wrote it off as “rust” and said that the factory management had put a plan in place to take care of it.

Apparently, the factory had switched to an unreliable sterilization method around the time of the FDA inspection, but this wasn’t noted, either. Just one week later, a distributor recalled 1.3 million syringes, which should have caused the FDA to launch another thorough inspection. But they didn’t due to understaffing.

When they finally did another inspection of the factory, it was far below standards and was shut down in January 2008. But by then, the damage was done. Over 100 people had become sick from using the bad syringes, and six actually died. In 2016, B. Braun, the company that sold the syringes, agreed to pay $7.8 million in damages.

2 Bacteria-Infected Ultrasound Gel

In 2011, doctors in the emergency room at Beaumont Health Center near Detroit began to notice that large numbers of patients were testing positive for the bacteria P. aeruginosa. This particular sort of bacteria is not normal and usually comes from contamination. They began to investigate and found that all 16 patients had mostly identical histories: They became sick with respiratory illnesses after cardiovascular surgeries.

Ultrasound gel is used to improve images for surgeries or exams. In this case, the patients became sick after imaging gel was used on them for surgery and infected their respiratory tracts. In 2008, a study in Europe showed that many imaging bottles tested positive for contamination when cultures were grown.

When the researchers announced their findings at the 18th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, they warned that bacteria could contaminate gels during the production process. US manufacturers apparently didn’t heed these warnings.

When cultures were grown from the gel bottles used before the outbreak in the United States, they also showed strains of bacteria that came from the manufacturing process. Pharmaceutical Innovations, the New Jersey–based company behind the imaging gel, was raided by US Marshals, and their gel products were seized.

Because imaging gel is so common, it was unknown just how far the contaminated products had been distributed. All the FDA could do was issue a warning that would be known by everyone using the gel because once the gel was applied, the bacteria could infect rapidly. Luckily, no more outbreaks were reported, and new safety standards have since been put in place.

1 Toxic Cough Syrup

This is one of the most tragic stories of tainted medicine because of how widespread it was and the nature of the people it affected: sick patients in the Third World. It all started with chemical production in China where glycerine, one of the main ingredients in cough syrup, would be substituted with the sweet-tasting but highly deadly chemical diethylene glycol to make extra money.

Diethylene glycol is an industrial solvent and one of the main ingredients in antifreeze. When ingested, it causes kidney failure, paralysis, and finally, multiple organ failure.

Several decades ago, medicine produced with diethylene glycol caused over 100 deaths in the United States, which prompted the FDA to pass strict regulations. But in less developed countries, it has, over two decades, been substituted in a variety of syrups and medicines.

This has caused at least eight mass poisonings with one in Panama resulting in 365 reported deaths. A conservative estimate has put deaths in the thousands. Diethylene glycol first appeared in Bangladesh in 1992 when children died after using counterfeit syrups. Later, 88 children died in Haiti.

All the toxic products can be traced back to the Yangtze delta, colloquially known as “chemical country” by the Chinese because it so well-known for chemical production. There, many raw chemicals are produced and diethylene glycol is often sold in place of glycerol.

In many instances where mass deaths were reported from using these products, they went through multiple inspections by distributors. But none of them discovered the truth. Often, those creating the chemicals weren’t even licensed. But in an effort to make a few extra dollars, buyers will turn a blind eye.

Once they have purchased the product, they will falsely certify it so that distributors will accept it. It took many deaths before the Chinese government finally began to take action. In 2007, the World Health Organization reported that around 440 counterfeit operations had been shut down. Hopefully, these efforts by authorities will be enough to prevent any future tragedies.

Gordon Gora is a struggling author who is desperately trying to make it.

These days, many new alleged disorders, health scares, and other psychological ailments seem to have been largely aided and abetted in their spread around the world by the Internet’s current viral culture. People will tell you that what you eat is killing you, what you breathe is killing you, and even Wi-Fi and drinking water will damage you forever.

Looking to take advantage of people’s fears, hucksters have used these scares to dramatize made-up disorders. Sometimes, they even create health scams themselves to sell products and make money off the gullible general public.

10 Some People Falsely Believe That Wi-Fi Is Dangerous Or That They Have A Specific Intolerance

A growing number of people claim to have electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). These individuals believe that the radiation and other radio waves from Wi-Fi and mobile phones are causing them to be sick on a regular basis. Some have even petitioned governments to give them disability for it.

In France and Sweden, a few people have managed to get benefits for this fictitious disorder. The problem is that many of these people are being falsely legitimized because a couple of countries are confused by reports from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO verified that EHS was real. But they also said that the electromagnetic part should be removed^[1] because there isn’t a shred of evidence that Wi-Fi or other similar signals are actually causing any kind of specific disorder or symptoms. In fact, the people who constantly claim to have this disorder always have symptoms that are very common—such as headaches, nausea, or a feeling of being unwell—and can be attributed to almost anything.

On top of that, studies have shown that EHS is likely to be an example of the “nocebo effect.” This occurs when someone comes to believe that something is dangerous for him. Before long, he will convince himself that it is making him sick. Then his body reacts in the opposite way it would to a placebo and sickens him for real.

While the jury is still out on whether there are any long-term repercussions from constantly talking on a mobile phone, most researchers believe that any effects are slight and that your Wi-Fi itself is not something to seriously worry about.

9 Gluten Sensitivity Is Probably The Most Overhyped ‘Disease’ Ever

It has become incredibly trendy these days to take gluten out of your diet entirely, citing claims that it somehow makes you feel sick, tired, or weak without any actual evidence to back it up. Many of these individuals don’t bother to go to a doctor to see if they actually have celiac disease or a wheat allergy. Still, some claim to have a sensitivity even though there is no way to actually test for such a thing.

Lately, some news sites have declared that research has proved the existence of gluten intolerance, but it did no such thing. Research has shown that some people who don’t test positive for a wheat allergy or celiac disease still claim to have some symptoms when eating gluten. But there are a lot of factors going on.

To begin with, our old friend the nocebo effect returns. Many people have been persuaded that gluten is bad for everyone, despite this being entirely untrue. So they psychologically convince their bodies that gluten is bad and make themselves sick.

Doctors have also suspected that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may have a lot to do with this. Researchers performed a double-blind study with IBS sufferers who were supposedly gluten intolerant and found that gluten was not a reliable trigger any more than a placebo.

The researchers believe that wheat and a lot of different foods can be tough on the tummies of people with IBS. These patients are just sensitive to almost everything, but gluten itself is a protein and not the culprit here.

If you think you have issues with gluten, doctors recommend that you go for an official diagnosis first. There could be many non-gluten things causing your symptoms, and you could delay a proper diagnosis by thinking you have solved the issue on your own.^[2]

The truth is that a lot of people who claim that they have a sensitivity to gluten probably just have sensitive stomachs in general.

8 Your Body Does Not Need Its ‘Energies’ To Be Balanced

These days, many people talk about their energies and the energies of those around them. They suggest that others have “negative energy” and that they have “positive energy.” They believe that this is not just people reacting to the emotions of others but some kind of actual intangible energy field that humans have around them—an aura, if you will.

This belief has led to an industry of fraudsters who claim that they practice something called Reiki. A Reiki practitioner believes that he can bring out the energy of his own body and use it to influence the energy field of someone else to help that person for the better.

Some have even claimed that they can perform this allegedly amazing feat from a distance. These practitioners implement their energy-based healing from many miles away without ever meeting their “patients.”

Here’s the truth: While it is often put forth in scientific-sounding language, Reiki is utter gibberish that is meant to confuse those who don’t understand the words being used. Your body has no special energy field, and it doesn’t emit any magnetic force.^[3]

You have energy to perform tasks, but that does not create a specific energy field. It is just a measure of how much your body is able to accomplish in a given time. Whenever someone starts talking about the electromagnetism or heat emanating from your body and how they can use that to balance your energies, you know that you are talking to a fraudster or, at the very least, someone who is extremely delusional.

7 Halitosis Is A Made-Up Disease Imagined By Listerine To Sell More Product

Some of you may have heard of the condition known as halitosis (aka bad breath). Most people take this for granted as a serious problem these days and will often have various levels of social anxiety about having potential bad breath.

In fact, some individuals have worried enough to go to doctors about the issue. Many keep their Listerine handy and even some breath mints to avoid such an embarrassing problem. However, not long ago, people didn’t worry about bad breath. As it doesn’t cause pain or any life-threatening symptoms, they figured it couldn’t be considered a real disease. And they were right. It isn’t.

During its early days, the company that made Listerine, which has been around since the late 1800s, was selling a decent amount of product to sterilize wounds, especially in the mouth. But they felt that they were not selling enough. So they made up the term “halitosis”^[4] and started a marketing blitz to play on people’s insecurities.

It worked beautifully. People were so convinced by Listerine’s ploy that almost no one will be caught with bad breath anymore. Unfortunately for Listerine’s profits, a lot of people these days just carry some breath mints and brush their teeth regularly.

6 ‘Detoxing’ Your Body Is Not A Real Thing—It Is Pushed By People Trying To Sell Useless Products

In health aisles and on health blogs, you will often see detox supplements or detox diets meant to quickly flush all the toxins out of your body so that you are clean and ready to go.

These products and the people who push them sound very alarming about the buildup of bad things in your body and suggest that what you are drinking or eating to detox is nothing more than the precious elixir of life itself. And you can have as much as you need—for a price.

As you may have guessed, their statements are not true. Perhaps one day, laws will become stricter and these fraudsters will get what they deserve.

There are a few major problems with their claims. First, they don’t understand what “detox” means. A detox^[5] is used by medical professionals to get an addict to a point where he is safely off a drug. Addicts are often tapered off drugs so that the effects of quitting cold turkey don’t kill them, which can happen with some drugs.

It has absolutely nothing to do with cleaning out your insides. When discussing detox diets or supplements, the toxins to which people refer are totally nonspecific and don’t even exist. The truth is that your body constantly flushes anything poisonous out of you on its own. A good example of this is when your body slowly works the alcohol out of your system by using your liver.

More importantly, if you really think your body is not getting the toxins out and you are becoming severely ill, then you may have something serious like organ failure and you should see a doctor immediately. A detox drink will not save you.

5 Vaginal Douching Is Completely Unnecessary

Vaginal douching is fairly common among women but actually has a rather short history. It only started to see widespread use in the last couple of centuries. At first, it was meant almost entirely as a method of birth control. Often, this meant vinegar or even chemicals would be used, which could be quite dangerous.

Over time, the purpose moved away from birth control and became more about dealing with cleaning or odors. Lysol also heavily advertised in the early 1900s, suggesting that women should be using it to clean themselves. Although people eventually realized that it was a bad idea to apply Lysol to human skin, many women had become convinced that using products to clean their vaginas was something that should be done on a regular basis.

However, the truth is that vaginas are self-cleaning and do not need any special products. On top of that, douching could upset the careful chemical balance and lead to an increased risk of infections and other complications.

Doctors simply do not recommend doing this at all.^[6] But it is an uphill battle to convince people otherwise because so many women have been douching for generations and passing the habit on to their offspring.

4 Hucksters Are Playing Up The Dangers Of Fluoride And Trying To Sell People Special Water Filters

Fluoride is one of the most controversial substances on the planet. It was made famous in popular culture with movies like Dr. Strangelove. The main character wanted to launch a nuclear attack because he felt the communists were poisoning our precious bodily fluids with fluoride and he had to stop them.

Many people today feel similarly and think that fluoride is an incredibly dangerous substance that should never have been put anywhere near our drinking water. They cite bogus studies or reviews which claim that fluoride damages children’s growing brains, causes cancer, and more.

However, these alleged tests never hold up to scrutiny. The oft-cited research that claims neurological damage results from fluoride was simply a review of tests in China. We know that China has many different factors impacting the quality of their drinking water, not just fluoride.

Despite heavy testing all over the world, there is no evidence that fluoride is harmful.^[7] The worst it can do is create small, purely cosmetic white spots on your teeth if you have too much over time.

However, there are people who try to make a buck on fluoride fears and they will defend the claims of harm until the end. Some sites even charge exorbitant sums to sell people special water filters that supposedly remove all of that evil fluoride.

3 Depression Is A Very Real Disease, But The Majority Of Those Diagnosed Do Not Actually Fit The Bill

Depression and major depressive disorder are absolutely real. There is more than enough scientific evidence to prove it—we are not arguing that. The issue is that many of the individuals diagnosed with depression do not fit the criteria properly.

In a study at Johns Hopkins, they took a look at nearly 6,000 people who had previously been diagnosed with depression and found that less than 60 percent of them truly qualified as having major depressive disorder.^[8] Even worse, antidepressant use in the United States rose by 400 percent in about 20 years, with over 10 percent of the teenage-and-up population taking antidepressants of some kind.

Although depression does exist, many people are given drugs that could make them worse while not helping with their real issues. When someone who doesn’t qualify as having depression feels sad, it is likely because life is difficult. These people may need to talk with a counselor. But taking unneeded drugs could harm the chemical balance of their brains over time.

The reason for this is serotonin syndrome and the main way that depression is treated. Most antidepressants help you produce more serotonin, which is a feel-good chemical in your brain. Those with depression have trouble producing this.

However, if you have too much serotonin in your system over time or at once, it can actually damage your ability to properly produce it. Excessive serotonin can also cause seizures in extreme cases.

Although extreme reactions are only likely to happen if you overdose, taking antidepressants over time when you don’t need them cannot be good for your chemical balance. You are basically tipping the scales in the wrong direction.

2 Trypophobia Is Not An Official Disorder And Is Very Played Up By Peer Pressure

Recently, a ridiculous new condition known as trypophobia has arisen on the web. While no one seems to have found a way to profit from it yet, you can bet someone will try as soon as they figure out a way. If nothing else, some web administrators have received decent traffic from making a huge deal about this supposed condition.

Trypophobia is the alleged fear of clustered holes. Some people claim that these holes freak them out and make them feel a horrible sense of revulsion. Supposedly, their skin gets itchy or they feel panicky or nauseous when looking at clustered holes. However, there is little reason to believe that this is a real condition.

No professional psychologist or doctor of any kind recognizes this phobia or condition. The handful of studies that have been performed were on a small scale and hardly conclusive of anything solid.

Carol Mathews, a psychiatrist at the University of California, talked to NPR about the phenomenon. She believes that it isn’t a true fear but simply a combination of priming, disgust, and people’s good old “me too” social attitudes (aka peer pressure).^[9]

Trypophobia pictures are nearly always shown with images that most people would find disgusting whether the pictures had clustered holes or not. This primes the brain—along with being told that trypophobia is a thing—to feel disgust or revulsion when you look at other such images.

Mathews also pointed out that many of these pictures, such as those of sliced cantaloupes, might gross out any of us if we look at them too long. But that doesn’t mean we actually have a condition or an instinctual revulsion. Disgust is not the same thing as fear.

1 Showering On A Daily Basis Can Be Bad For Your Health—It Is More About Smell And Expectations

Showering daily, sometimes more than once a day, or at least once a week is a habit ingrained so deeply in so many individuals in modern societies that the idea of not doing it is utterly foreign. Many people just cannot imagine a life without regular showers or baths.

They spend a lot of money on shampoos and conditioners over the years. However, there is some reason to believe that the shampoo and conditioner companies are really selling you a big, fat load of social insecurity while happily taking your money to the bank.

There appears to be no scientific basis for believing that showering is good for your health in the slightest. In fact, all evidence, while not as strong as some would like, points to the contrary.

The research suggests that showers are actually bad for you because they constantly kill off healthy skin bacteria and mess with the delicate microbial balance that keeps you safe from diseases and other problems.^[10] Frequent bathing was not widespread until the more modern world emerged. Even then, the kinds of shampoos that we use now became common only recently.

In most people’s eyes, there was never any real need to shower so often until clever marketers convinced people that their natural odor was socially unacceptable. These marketers wanted to sell shampoos and other products like deodorant, so they created an industry that is now worth billions of dollars a year.

We aren’t saying that you should simply skip showers in today’s world. But showering with mostly water unless you really feel the need to remove a smell could at least cut down on how much you are harming your body’s balance of skin bacteria.

With a heaping dose of ‘health and safety hypersensitivity’, any family trip or neighbourhood party can turn into a boring, slow moving dull-a-thon. That grill is too hot, keep the kids away. How deep is that pool? That popcorn is a choking hazard, enjoy some celery soup with your movie. Sometimes, you have to live a little. Not with these products, though. The items listed below will burn you, choke you or pop out your eyes in a second. Enjoy.

10 Products Made From Human Body Parts And Secretions

10 Norodin A.K.A Speed

Who doesn’t love meth? Many happy customers the world over use this wonder drug to increase their ‘vim’ and ‘pep’ before engaging in the usual sorts of activities people like; robbery, prostitution and proclaiming oneself the messiah whilst nude at a public swimming pool.

People in the past were actually able to purchase methamphetamines legally. One brand named version of the drug was Norodin, marketed at ladies who wanted to lose weight. Speed was everywhere. You could even get a Benzedrine inhaler, along with a large scotch and the chicken set dinner, on PanAm flights in the 1940s. That’s exactly what you want on a long haul flight across the pond—a meth head in the middle seat. Speed was popular until a slew of high profile criminal cases all over the world pointed to abuse of these narcotics as a contributing factor. The business moved from control by pharmacists to your friendly, local drug kingpins, bringing an air of the home-grown and rustic to Meth.^[1]

9 A Lot Of Stuff Made By The A.C. Gilbert Company

This company made some pretty cool toys. They also made some of the most dangerous ‘toys’ a kid could ever have the misfortune of playing with. Small cuts, light scalding, choking hazards and pinching injuries are extremely common in kids toys and always have been. Radiation poisoning though? A.C. Gilbert was a multi-talented inventor, but he really pushed the boat out on innovative ways to seriously maim children.

The ‘Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab’ allowed your budding Einstein to play around with different uranium ores that produced gamma, alpha and beta radiation. Fun! Gilbert also produced a glass blowing kit for kids (presumably so they could engage in the most disfiguring game of pea-shooters ever) and a chemistry kit which included a heaping pile of sodium cyanide, just in case lil’ Bobby jr. wants to bump off the Russian agent next door. Or make a really terrible milkshake for himself.^[2]

8 1920’s Hair Removal

Waxing, shaving, epilating and laser treatments are the ways modern guys and gals use to remove those pesky stray hairs in problem areas. How did the ladies of the 1920s do it? X-rays. I shit you not one bit, folks. X-rays.

The ‘Tricho’ machines, once relatively commonplace in beauty parlours across the USA, were machines that focused doses of X-rays upon the customers’ cheeks and upper lip. This would, after upwards of 15 treatments a year, induce permanent hair removal. And malignant carcinomas. Possibly death. Given that hair removal beauty regimens are more common for men today, you may be curious if this could be just dangerous for ladies in the 1920s. Amazing!—the march of progress, scientific developments, am I right? Well sir, the next time you break your arm, do NOT enquire whether the guy or gal in charge of the X-ray machine minds doing your back, sack and crack. You’ll get rid of those hairs, but gain a few tumours.^[3]

7 The Empire Little Lady Stove

We’ve all read about the dangers of the once popular kids ‘Easy Bake Oven’. This popular mini oven allowed children to play kitchen for real. But for every hundred or so nicely browned jam tarts, you’ll end up burning yourself (we’ve all been there. Damn spun sugar, it’s basically napalm). When you scale it down and allow little kids to do the same, you’re asking for a trip to the burns unit with little Jinny or Jimmy. Imagine your kids’ toy oven could reach temperatures that exceed your own full-size cooker. That’d be the Empire Little Lady Stove.

Modern ovens will reach a temperature of around 550 degrees Fahrenheit before a mechanism clicks in, turning off the oven lest it burn the house down. This children’s toy could reach temperatures of 600 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s just about hot enough to bake some lovely chocolate chip cookies in 35 seconds. Ah, simpler times.^[4]

6 The Zulu Blowgun Game

Zulu warriors employed a whole host of deadly weapons when they went to war. Not blowguns, though. To the makers of this wonderfully safety unconscious game, that didn’t matter. Unsafe and tone deaf, a match made in hell!

This crazy game included a blowgun, paper targets and metal-tipped darts. So, an actual weapon then. This is the equivalent of handing a child a loaded Glock 17 and, without training, calling it their ‘new shooting game’. Have at it, kid. Gotta learn to larp sometime.^[5]

10 Products You Aren’t Using The Crazy Way Their Creators Intended

5 Incredibly Inflammable Clothes

In the words of noted physician Dr. Nick Riviera, “Inflammable means flammable? What a country!” Once you get the definitions straight, now you can venture forth into the world and realise that a wire wool jacket may not be the best item of clothing to wear at the 9V battery factory. Victorian ladies had a hold host of incredibly easy to burn fabrics to choose from in a world that still employed candles and gas-fuelled flames for light. Muslin, gauze, all the open weaved cotton fabrics for dresses was a little like wearing a frock made of match heads. One of the craziest fabrics was flannelette.

The coroner of the city of Manchester, England put it best when interviewed for a local newspaper in 1898:

He noted that he had ‘held several inquests on children burned to death owing to their having played with fire in one way or another. Mr Smelt said there had been seven such deaths within a week that he had had to deal with, and he attributed the fact to the cold weather we had recently experienced. Children would go near fires to warm themselves; it, therefore, behoved parents to watch them strictly. They should also avoid dressing them in flannelette, which was almost as dangerous, if touched with fire, as gunpowder’. Still, those dresses looked pretty.^[6]

4 Roman Blinds

A few of these entries seem to cover danger to children. The toys are obviously going to be very kid-heavy, but window coverings? You better believe it. These fancier looking roller blinds are all but impossible to get in the USA these days, at least with the traditional pull cords.

You may think this is public safety run amok, maybe some crazy attempt to avoid lawsuits based on 1 or 2 kids getting friction burns or a toggle in the eye. But according to data gathered in 2015, more than 200 child deaths could be attributed to pull cords on window coverings. Huge retailers like Target and IKEA have now removed them from the shelves. Fair enough then.^[7]

3 Agene-Treated Flour

White bread was fancy stuff until the advent of sourdough and malted tin loaves with a honey glaze topped with mixed seeds. The whiter the bread, the ‘better’. As mass production and higher wages began to take hold at the turn of the last century, demand for good bread skyrocketed. How could bakers make shiny, brilliant white loves consumers wanted?

It’s all in the milling process. The whiter the flour, the whiter the bread. So they’d bleach the flour, artificially whitening the bread, the process getting better and better until you could buy a loaf that was whiter than Casper the friendly ghost’s taint. One chemical that was commonly used was nitrogen trichloride, or agene. In 1949 it was discovered that this process wasn’t producing flour that was safe for human consumption. Agene treated flour caused neurological disorders. How was this found out? Agene flour was also used in the making of dog biscuits, the dogs consumed them and showed signs of hysteria. Hysterical dogs—always a dead giveaway that something isn’t quite right.^[8]

2 Samsung Galaxy Note 7

This phone blasted onto the market in August of 2016, becoming the latest hot property produced by South Korean tech juggernaut Samsung. It caused an explosion of excitement for users… before causing actual explosions due to faulty batteries.

First, the newly released Note 7s would go boom. Samsung told consumers that they could trade in their recently purchased faulty phones for a new, far less explosive one. The problem was that these new improved phones also tended to overheat and blow up. This led to Samsung pulling the plug. Alongside the many hundreds of disappointed consumer whose new devices had combusted, Samsung took a bit of heat too—to the tune of around $17 billion in lost revenue. Ouch!^[9]

1 Any Car Before The 90s

When you look at car accident photographs from the past (if you’re that way inclined), one wonders why anybody would buy a car back then. They were death machines.

Any petrol head, especially stateside, knows about the infamous Ford Pinto (available from 1971—1980) with its genius design innovation—the fuel tank was right next to the bumper at the rear of the car, making even the lightest bump to the back of the Pinto a potentially explosive crash. What about even further back in time? Well, the amazing Briggs & Stratton Flyer, perhaps the cheapest to produce car ever, was essentially a go-kart primarily made from wood. It had no doors. No windscreen. No safety tech at all. Looks fun, until you consider that the mere addition of a scarf to your driving apparel pretty much guarantees that you’ll lose your head.

Speaking of gruesome deaths caused by automotive accidents, here’s a fun fact for all you vintage car collectors. If you’re driving any car made before 1968, the steering column won’t be collapsible. So what? Well, if you get into a prang, the waist belt (chances are you won’t have a 3 point safety belt) won’t stop you getting impaled on the fixed steering column. Even much loved, iconic classic cars are incredibly unsafe. Say you fancy yourself a bit of a Marty McFly and buy a DeLorean. You’ll look cool as hell… until some jackass undertakes you and you swerve. The you flip over. Then you’re entombed in a metal sarcophagus, facing certain death. Why? Those cool-as-balls gull wings cannot open when the car is upside down. Bet you wish you’d made out with your teenage mother instead… “Great Scott!”^[10]

10 Surprising Products Made By Your Favorite Companies, Including The Samsung Machine Gun

About The Author: CJ Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. He is a little obsessed with lists.

Well-known companies dominating their market don’t always have lucky stars on their side. From failed Halloween-themed products to weird items unrelated to the merchandise they are famous for, these 10 companies are examples of how pushing the boundaries can prove embarrassing.

Top 10 Failed McDonald’s Products

10 Tesla: Cybertruck

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, is an entrepreneur, engineer, and industrial designer who revolutionizes transportation on Earth and into space. Elon Musk started Tesla in 2003 and aimed to create environmentally friendly all-electric cars. Tesla’s total revenue has increased from 204.24 million U.S dollars in 2011 to 21461.27 million dollars in 2018. But there have been some bumps in the road.

Although you cannot fully classify this product as a complete flop, the Cybertruck did have an embarrassing demonstration in 2019. Tesla boasts on their website that they built the Cybertruck for “ultimate durability and passenger protection.” The materials used on the car are Ultra-Hard 30X Cold-Rolled stainless-steel and armor glass that will not shatter. But shatter it did.

For the unveiling of the Cybertruck in a 2019 event, Elon Musk started the durability demonstration by slamming a sledgehammer to the car’s body. Next was to throw a large metal ball at the impenetrable armor glass. Lead designer Franz von Holzhausen threw the ball twice, and twice the car’s window smashed. Elon Musk admitted there was “room for improvement” and later explained that the sledgehammer had created an invisible crack in the glass.

9 Apple: Macintosh TV

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. These two college dropouts wanted to make computers small enough for the home and office, and they ended up building an empire. Today Apple has many popular products like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac computer. They grew from annual revenues of eight billion U.S. dollars in 2004 to over 270 billion dollars in 2020.

While Apple is well-known for their technological prowess, they are not immune to unsuccessful product ideas. Among their many failed products is the Macintosh TV. It was meant to be a hybrid TV and Mac computer but ended up too expensive, lacking enough storage, and lacking standard video output ports. Apple introduced the Macintosh TV in October 1993 and within four months terminated it in February 1994.

8 Coca-Cola: Diet Coke Plus Green Tea

The Coca-Cola Company was founded in 1892 and is one of the world’s largest non-alcoholic beverage manufactures. They introduced the first bottles made from recycled materials and invented the six-pack in 1932. While Coca-Cola has been successful in many ways and with many flavor variations, not all their products have global popularity.

Despite being a soda company, Coca-Cola tried to cater to health-conscious consumers with their Diet Coke Plus line of products. One product, in particular, the Diet Coke Plus Green Tea, was launched in Japan in 2009, hoping to be a big hit. It contained tea antioxidants that can reduce inflammation and prevent certain cancers.

Japan is known to consume green tea at over 600 grams per person. This fact made it easy to market the drink there. However, Coca-Cola didn’t deliver on the product’s taste, so it never made it globally, including no appearance in the United States.

7 Colgate-Palmolive: Kitchen Entrees

If a brand is known for one product, it doesn’t mean it can easily extend into another market. This case was true for Colgate-Palmolive when they did a test run for their Colgate Kitchen Entrees in 1964. At the time, the company wanted to get into the 4.2 billion dollar convenience food field. However, it failed to gain momentum for its dried chicken and crabmeat entrees. Consumers thought of personal hygiene with Colgate, not TV dinners, so the Kitchen Entrees were never officially launched.

Currently, in 2021, Colgate-Palmolive is the second leading personal care brand worldwide. It has a brand value of 17.4 billion U.S. dollars. It seems sticking to toothpaste and toothbrushes was a wise choice!

6 Burger King: Halloween Whopper

McDonald’s is not the only burger kingpin that has made meals that flopped over the years. In 2015, the Burger King Halloween Whopper proved out of place in the Home of the Whopper when customers reported unpleasant side effects. The burger’s black bun represented the Halloween spirit but led to green bowel movements the next day. As a result, what customers found in their toilet bowls became more popular than the burger’s taste.

The following year, there was no Halloween Burger to be found. But why did it turn feces green? In children and adults, eating food coloring can result in green bowel movements. Our stomachs don’t absorb most food coloring. When dye colors such as blue or purple mix with our yellow-green stomach bile, the result can be green feces.

5 BMW: The M1

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly known as BMW, is a German car and motorcycle company founded in 1916. Today it is the leading luxury car brand worldwide. The company’s local revenue in 2020 was 99 billion Euros despite car sale drops due to COVID-19.

Although always well-known for its well-designed, reliable luxury cars, BMW didn’t start with a reputation for supercars. In 1978, the company failed to make a dominating sports car for the race tracks. The M1 was unable to compete with the Porsche cars that ruled European racing at the time. For example, in the 1979 Le Mans, France race at Circuit de la Sarthe, Porsche cars finished first to fourth, and the BMW M1 came in sixth. BMW built a limited number of M1 cars and discontinued the line by 1982.

BMW has not given up on developing supercars and recently launched the popular i8 sports car in November 2013. This car is a plug-in hybrid that sold about 28,000 units in 2020 before BMW discontinued it the same year. But this time, not due to lack of popularity.

4 Amazon: Fire Phone

A lot of us have bought something on Amazon, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic while in quarantine. This e-commerce company offers a wide variety of products ranging from retail to pantry items. In 2020, Amazon was the leading e-retailer in the United States with almost 386 billion dollars in net sales.

Jeff Bezos’ Amazon may be the king of e-commerce, but their 2014 Fire Phone burned to the ground. The phone was too expensive at $200, designed more for Bezos than the consumers, and entered the smartphone market too late. In 2014, Apple and Android already had at least eight generations of smartphones. Another reason for its failure was the limited number of apps compared to competitors. The Amazon app store had approximately 240,000. In contrast, Google Play had over 1 million apps in 2014.

The unsold Fire Phones cost Amazon $170 million within three months, and phone companies significantly dropped the retail price. For example, after two months, AT&T offered a deal of 99 cents for the Fire Phone with a 2-year contract.

3 Donald Trump: Trump Steaks

Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, is well known for his business empire, including finance and real estate. However, among his successes, he has multiple failed ventures under his belt. One is the Trump Steaks released into the market in 2007. Trump sold the steaks only on QVC and the Sharper Image website. The latter is known for selling electronics, home furnishings, and personal care items more than food. This discrepancy in selling platforms most likely contributed to the failure of the product. The Sharper Image website also decided to discontinue the steaks after only two months.

2 Frito Lay: Cheetos Lip Balm

Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in the 1940s, and by 1961 when the Frito Lay Inc. company was formed, it had annual revenues of $127 million. Cheetos was one of the largest snack food brands produced by Frito Lay. They dominated their market, so why go out of their comfort zone?

While you can expect cheesy fingers after eating a bag of Cheetos, not everyone enjoys deliberately smearing cheese on their face. Frito Lays found this out the hard way in 2005 when they released their Cheetos Lip Balm. The company quickly discontinued the product after numerous negative reviews. For example, one customer left a review explaining it “smells like moldy cheese. It doesn’t moisturize well either. An overall thumbs down.”

1 Evian—Water Bra

Evian is a company known for mineral water. It was founded in 1789 by a French nobleman in the town of Évian-les-Bains. In 1978 they were the first natural spring water brand imported in the United States and Canada. With such a success story in the mineral water market, we would assume they would generate water products that make a splash. But this is not the case.

In 2005, Evian decided to expand into the clothing market with a Water Bra. Evian designed the bra to cool down breasts during the warmer months with pads containing mineral water. There was a filter funnel that allowed women to top off the water to their preference levels. The bra also featured a pouch to hold a miniature water bottle. Evian marketed the water bras’ benefits as toning and shaping your body to be beach-ready in addition to its cooling feature. However, the product was unsuccessful and discontinued not long after its launch. Today, Evian still has no clothing products on their website.

Top 10 Apple Failures

About The Author: Sara enjoys research, art, and seeking a sustainably fun life, balancing physical and mental health. Read more on how she explores, learns, and balances all her interests at www.saramenges.com.

While we all try to save money most of the time, we also tend to have a couple things where, for whatever reason, we really want the quality product and are willing to shell out the extra cash. It may be that we simply love that particular item so much we want to enjoy it in luxury, or it could also be that we have a moral hangup with the way the product is usually sourced, and the higher end stuff gives us a chance to enjoy it guilt-free. However, the unfortunate reality is that many speciality products may not be exactly what you think they are, even if the advertisers aren’t technically lying. 

10. Fair Trade Coffee Is Only Fair To The Company Shareholders

When a lot of the world gets up in the morning, they start their day by either making a cup of coffee, or going and buying one from somewhere. Most people love it, and even those who don’t tend to love caffeine, most of which naturally comes from coffee or tea in the first place. Now, while plenty of us like coffee, many have concerns about the coffee farmers and whether they are getting a fair shake. For this reason, many people are happy to splurge and spend a good bit extra on Fair Trade Coffee in order to feel less guilty about what they buy. 

However, the problem is that Fair Trade Coffee is mostly fair to the company selling it, and not really that fair to the farmer. The problem is that Fair Trade basically just means that the company has to pay the farmer a decided minimum price for their coffee. This would work if the minimum price was fair, but farmers are only currently paid $1.40 a pound for their coffee in order to call it Fair Trade. When Fair Trade Coffee is marked up by several dollars and the farmers are only getting 40% more of a pittance, it doesn’t seem very fair. 

9. Your 100% Fresh Squeezed Florida Orange Juice Is A Zombified Abomination 

Orange juice is one of the most popular drinks in the United States and many people drink it at breakfast as a matter of habit, so much so that most hotels couldn’t imagine a breakfast service without it. Most orange juice is sold as 100% fresh squeezed Florida orange juice and we are happy knowing that at least one fresh, natural product is actually affordable, and exactly what it says it is. 

Except that it actually isn’t really, at least not as far as most people would be concerned if they knew the truth. And the truth is that orange juice is often kept in vats for up to a year, in order to make sure the companies always have fresh product to sell. In order to keep it fresh in these vats they take all the extra air out, but this robs it of taste and nutrients. To make up for this, they add something called a flavor pack to fix the problem. So from a certain technical point of view what you are drinking is sort of still orange juice, but it is also something else entirely. 

8. Most Of Panera’s Items Are Not As Fresh As You Probably Think 

Panera Bread charges you a rather big markup for a fast casual dining restaurant, and gets away with it by making you feel like you are eating really, really healthy and fresh food. They show beautiful salads, advertise their fresh breads, and serve delicious (and “healthy”) sandwiches and soups that you can feel good about. Despite the high costs, many people feel it is worth it because of how fresh they are eating, and will happily pay the added cost. 

However, Panera isn’t nearly as fresh as you may think. For starters, the thing about their bread being fresh is true, but maybe not as fresh as you might imagine. Bakers do come in overnight, but they are only putting frozen loaves of dough in the oven. This makes them even less fresh then Subway, as Subway will make more bread during the day, and Panera will not. As for their famous soups, it turns out there isn’t any actual cooking going on at Panera either; they all come out of a plastic bag. 

7. Cage Free Eggs May Not Be Cruelty Free

Many people will buy cage-free eggs and spend the extra money in the hopes that they can buy eggs that are not being taken from cruelly treated chickens, but this whole concept is really hard to get a proper grip on. The regulations can be kind of vague, and people will interpret it to mean that the chickens are being treated kindly. But this label means little when it comes to any real value. A company may be treating the chickens kindly, but the label doesn’t prove it. 

All the cage-free label really means is that they are not confined to a cage, but they could still be trapped in a crowded warehouse in awful conditions with no room to move around. If you really want to be sure, you will need to do more research on the company involved and see what is really going on. Now, you could go free range instead, but that just means they are allowed outside and have a total of two square feet to themselves — which is still pretty horrible. 

6. Fresh Sushi In The United States Does Not Actually Exist 

People like to eat fresh (just ask the people who frequent Panera! Oh, wait… ), and to spend extra money to know they are eating fresh. Nowhere is this desire more pronounced than when it comes to sushi. With fish already being best when it’s right out of the water, sushi especially just makes sense to eat fresh if you are paying a premium. However, the problem is that if you live in the United States, you have probably never eaten fresh sushi, and this is actually a good thing.

The thing is, due to fear of worms and other parasites, all sushi that is sold in the US has to have been put through  a deep freeze first, in order to kill off any worms that may be inside it. While some may find this bothersome, you really shouldn’t be worried about it, as you really do not want to get worms. (No, seriously. You don’t.)

These infections tend to be more common off the coast of Japan, where they don’t always freeze their fish before turning it into sushi. As you might imagine, the results are not pleasant. There is more than one worm you can get, but they all provide some of the same basic issues. Mainly, that they will absorb nutrients you need, and over time, if not caught, can continue to burrow into more and more important organs, leading to all sorts of horrible complications. 

5. A 4K Monitor Without A Powerful GPU To Back It Will Make Your Gaming A Slideshow 

4K is the next big thing (at least until 8K starts to really take off), and right now 4K TVs and computer monitors are being sold to early adopters who are willing to pay a premium for the experience. The idea is to give you an even better, crisper, and more fantastic viewing experience, and many have already jumped at the chance to upgrade. Now, if you are mostly watching TV or playing low-end video games, a 4K TV or monitor might be right for you. 

However, if your goal is to get a monitor to improve your gaming experience while playing high-end games on even decent graphics, you are going to need a really, really strong GPU that probably costs a lot of money. And of course, this all goes back to the concept of bottleneck in general when it comes to gaming. If just one part in your setup isn’t on the same tier as the rest, it can slow down everything else, making your expensive setup basically pointless. Products like this sound nice, but without the proper backup, they are only going to stutter and give you a broken experience. 

4. Tide Isn’t Just Laundry Detergent, It Is One Of The Hottest Black Market Commodities 

Tide has become so famous that for some people it is basically synonymous with laundry detergent in general. It dominates a huge part of the laundry detergent aisles, and there are so many sizes and varieties of it that it’s almost dizzying. While it is dominant, it’s also a very expensive detergent, and some people saw this and decided that they could make something else out of it.  

See, it turns out that the black market has figured out a way to use it as currency of a sort, for a number of reasons. For starters, we all need to do laundry, and it is very hard to trace. Furthermore, it is expensive,  and has a fairly fixed market price. It keeps easily, doesn’t require a lot of storage space for a decent amount of currency, and there is no crime to having a lot in your house, even if it is suspicious. Now, for some time it seemed its status had faded a bit, but it turns out that Tide theft is on the rise once again. 

3. Many Products, Especially Shredded Cheese, Contain Wood Pulp 

Most people tend to think of wood as something that you use for furniture, and not something that you normally put in your mouth; however, if you have eaten shredded cheese, parmesan cheese, or many other products, you have actually eaten wood pulp. This may surprise a lot of people, but the truth is it’s actually a very common practice because it is considered perfectly safe. In products like parmesan cheese, it is often used as an anti-caking agent, but in the cheaper parmesan cheeses it’s there in higher quantities.

In shredded cheese it serves a similar purpose, which is to try to keep the cheese from sticking together, but that is not the only reason that wood pulp, also known as cellulose, or sawdust, is added to your food. It’s not edible, but being safe and being fiber, it can help push food through your body. This means some products slap on their label that it has “added fiber” because they put a bit of wood pulp in it. If you ever saw a product that had added fiber and you didn’t know where it could have came from, it was probably wood pulp. 

2. Truffle Oil Is Not Made From Real Truffles, But You Might Hate Them Anyway

Truffle is considered by many to be basically the height of luxury. Truffles are incredibly rare fungi that can usually only be found in select spots with specially trained animals. For this reason they are insanely expensive, and are prized by fine dining chefs who are looking to give you the most amazing experience in the world. Now, for most of us we are not likely to ever be able to afford truffles, and certainly are not going to make them a regular part of our dining experience. However, some people feel that truffle oil can give them a chance to experience the real thing, in its essence, at a reasonable price.  

Unfortunately, the  truth is that truffle oil is not actually real, but is more like artificial vanilla. It’s flavored sort of like truffle, but it isn’t the extract of the real thing. This may not be such a bad thing though, as a lot of people just don’t even like them, and won’t no matter how much they try to. You see, if you cannot smell a chemical in truffles called androstenone, then you will likely hate them anyway, as you cannot properly taste them. 

1. Antihistamines Being Advertised As Sleep Aids Is All Kinds Of Weird

If you have ever spent even a few minutes looking at labels in an over the counter drug section in the United States, you may have noticed that Benadryl, also known as diphenhydramine, is often sold as two different medications. Diphenhydramine is often sold as both an allergy medication and a sleep aid. This is because some allergy medications are not only antihistamines, they are also anticholinergics. 

However, many doctors would argue that using anticholinergics to make you sleep is really a misuse of a medication. The thing is, diphenhydramine and others make you feel drowsy because anticholinergics block the transmission of acetylcholine in the brain, which is important for cells sending messages to each other and for basic nerve function. Basically, by taking this you are telling your body to slow a lot of things down to stop allergic reactions.

For sleep, however, it often gives poor quality sleep when it does work, and can cause hyperactivity in children. It can also have side effects like dry mouth, dry eyes, constipation, and disorientation, even when taken according to dosing instructions. Worse yet, taking it on a regular basis is linked to an increased risk of dementia. If you really just cannot sleep, a dose of melatonin would be a much better choice.