Soon after() discovery, it was manufactured synthetically and was believed to have almost magical healing properties. It appeared in food products such as bread, chocolate, toys (because of its luminescence), toothpaste, cosmetics, suppositories, and products to treat impotence. One of the frst revelations about the true potency of radioactivity and the scope of its potential danger concerned the unfortunate girls who became radium watch dial painters in the early 1900s. By 1927, over 50 women died due to radium paint poisoning, and many of the survivors sufered signifcant health problems.