Radium of radium Curie used the residues after extraction of uranium from pitchblende. The uranium had been extracted by dissolution in sulfuric acid leaving radium sulfate, which is similar to barium sulfate but even less soluble in the residues. The residues also contained rather substantial amounts of barium sulfate which thus acted as a carrier for the radium sulfate. The first steps of the radium extraction process involved boiling with sodium hydroxide followed by hydrochloric acid treatment to remove as much as possible of other compounds. The remaining residue was then treated with sodium carbonate to convert the barium sulfate into
Radium bromide those two chemicals are chosen for the fractional crystallization. Once the radium is separated, radium bromide can be formed by dehydrating the dihydrate with a dry air stream at 200°C. Another method is to heat radium chloride to red heat with a dry hydrogen bromine gas stream. Radium and radium salts were commonly used for treating cancer. However, many treatments that were used in the early 1900s are not used anymore because of the harmful effects radium bromide exposure caused. Some examples are anaemia, cancer, and genetic mutations. Health effects from harmful amounts of radium exposure are tricky to diagnose