Yes, there was skepticism, but there wasn't much, legally, that skeptics could do to prevent these products from being sold. If you're interested in this stuff, you should check out a book called "The Poisoner's Handbook", written by a journalist named Deborah Blum. It covers the development of forensic toxicology, which eventually lead to a lot of consumer protection laws. There's even a chapter on radium, Radithor, and the women who worked with radium in the watch dial factory.