This inorganic compound was discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898, and the discovery sparked a huge interest in radiochemistry and radiotherapy.

[5] All types of therapeutic tests were performed for different skin diseases including eczema, lichen and psoriasis.

[6] Furthermore, many respectable journals and newspapers in the early 1900s published statements claiming that radium posed no health hazard.

[6] Numerous countries and institutions across the world set out to extract as much radium as possible, a time-consuming and expensive task.

[9] Radium bromide is a luminous salt that causes the air surrounding it, even when encased in a tube, to glow a brilliant green and demonstrate all bands of the nitrogen spectrum.

[4] Radium is obtained from uranium or pitchblende ores by the "Curie method", which involves two major stages.

Radium bromide also poses a severe environmental hazard, amplified due to its high solubility in water, and it can bioaccumulate and cause long-lasting damage to organisms.

[citation needed] Radium bromide is highly reactive, and crystals can explode if violently shocked or heated.

[6] Radium bromide was also used in luminous paint on watches, but its use was ultimately phased out in the 1960-1970s in favor of less dangerous chemicals like promethium and tritium.