Marketed as a scientific method for optimizing shoe fit, the fluoroscope appeared in shoe stores nationwide from the 1920s to the 1960s. But the machines not only didn’t do what they promised, they also exposed children, their parents and store clerks to unhealthy doses of radiation. In the late 1940s, scientists began to raise serious concerns about the dangerous levels of radiation and over the next two decades, individual states gradually took action to either ban or restrict the use of the device. By the 1970s, concerns grew about radiation emitted from other common appliances, such as televisions and microwave ovens. By the mid 1970s, 33 states had banned the devices. I was too young to experience the x-ray shoe fitter, but many of our older readers have mentioned the fluoroscopes at Tuchscherer's. While it might have been a fun novelty to see the bones in our feet, the truth is that we were exposed to multiple doses of unnecessary radiation. But while it is popular to repeat popular maxims that those "fun" activities like this and playing with mercury with our bare hands didn't kill us, I wouldn't recommend it for my own kids, whereby I'd likely be jailed for child abuse today.
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