I guess the increased risk today compared with earlier would arise from the breakdown of the cement or other-such gunk used to hold the radium and the luminous compound (Zinc Sulphide, as described above) together.
Thus small bits are more likely to fall off and be ingested than was hitherto the case.
I am trying to recall a tale of a schoolboy recently who had purchased a stack of old watches in order to remove and use the radium for scientific experiments. Radiation burns spring to mind. Google has come up with this one, which wasn't the one I had in mind.
Uh-oh! 'Radioactive Boy Scout' who built a nuclear reactor in his Detroit shed sparking evacuation of 40,000 now wants to invent a lightbulb that lasts 100 years | Daily Mail Online