Radium chloride radium chloride is weakly paramagnetic with a magnetic susceptibility of 1.05. It also differs from barium chloride by the flame color, which is red as opposed to green for barium chloride. Radium chloride is still used for the initial stages of the separation of radium from barium during the extraction of radium from pitchblende. The large quantities of material involved (tonnes of ore for milligrams of radium) favour this less costly (but less efficient) method over those based on radium bromide or radium chromate (used for the later stages of the separation). It was also used in medicine to produce
Radium bromide as possible to use it for medical purposes. However, it was not long until radium and radium salts were thought of as magical substances and were added to food, drinks, clothing, toys and more. Respectable journals in the early 1900s published statements claiming that radium had no toxic effect. Scientists were racing against each other trying to be the first to successfully use radium to cure health problems. Radium salts, including radium bromide, were most often used by placing the chemical in a tube that was then passed over or inserted into the problem site or tissue in the body.