Much of the mineral water you buy in shops also has a lot of radioactive trace elements.
Yes but they are not selling it for the radiation in those minerals. When was the last time that Perrier proudly announced that it contained "vital minerals such as uranium and radium"?
Mind you bananas and apricots are mildly radioactive as they contain 3 isotopes of potassium, and
40K happens to be unstable. You could always say that "bananas provide a healthy dose of natural radiation."
It's interesting that the Revigorator water decanter actually was poisoning people, but not due to radioactive isotopes, but rather because it leaked high relatively high levels lead and arsenic into the water...
When scientists tested the exposure to radiation that people would get, they were pleasantly surprised. The Revigorator did give off radon gas, which got into both the air and the water. While the levels exceeded EPA restrictions, the amount of radiation a person would get from either would have been minor, especially if they lived in a house with just a bit of a draft.
The real problem was that the Revigorator leaked its materials into the water. Those materials included uranium and vanadium, of course, but also arsenic and lead. Some of the water contained 300 times the maximum safe level of arsenic. Some contained 20 times the maximum allowable level of lead. So, the people drinking it were actually poisoning themselves—just not in the way they paid for.
