Around the turn of the century (even into the 30s and 40s) is when a lot of products containing Radon and Thorium were sold because we hadn't yet known how dangerous they were.<br>These include everything from radioactive chocolate bars and Radium-infused water to eye drops, condoms, and even suppositories. People had a vague sense of radioactive <br>material being "powerful" and marketed these products as helping you gain some of that power. It wasn't until later that people realized ingesting radon and rubbing it against your genitals was potentially deadly, and regulations started to take effect that removed these products from the market. <br><br>I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for shutting down a midden from the 1920s isn't just because a few pieces of military hardware were found, but because common (at the time) household products dumped there might be radiating at unsafe levels as well. <br><br>I think "better safe than sorry" is smart policy when dealing with radioactive cleanup... but I'd hope they do so in a way that can still preserve some of the history buried there.