Inside the defunct Merry Widow Health Mine in Basin, Mont., water seeps from the rock walls. People who want full immersion in its radon-laced waters can slip into a clawfoot tub as part of unregulated radiation therapy touted by the mine's owners but deemed potentially dangerous by some radiation experts. (Katheryn Houghton/Kaiser Health News)
July 29, 2021
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July 29, 2021 11:30 a.m.
Doctors caution against pilgrimages to radon-filled Montana mines
Twice a year, Brian Tichenor makes the 1,200-mile drive each way from his home in Kansas to a defunct uranium mine in Montana, where he takes an elevator 85 feet below the surface to sit amid radioactive radon gas to ease the pain from his chronic eye condition.