Re: Radium dials on instruments

From: Ryan Gill (rmgill@mindspring.com)
Date: Fri May 19 2006 - 23:08:51 PDT


At 9:29 PM -0500 5/19/06, David wrote:
>I am looking for a web site that has information
>about instruments with radium dials in regard to
>exposure rates, safe levels and methods of
>accurately measuring them. MV or aircraft, it
>does not matter as long as it is about radium.
>Does anybody have any links they can share??
>Various web searches net too many to sort
>through and many are not specific enough about
>the topic of instruments.

The radiation they give off is blocked by a few
sheets of paper. They're alpha waves. Now,
fragments of the paint or the radium gas itself,
that's a different matter. Don't disassemble the
dials in your house, don't work on the gear in
your house and if it looks like the paint is
flaking, keep it in the garage. The radium gas,
degrades into various elements that are solid
isotopes, each step giving off radiation and
degrading into other isotopes based on half life.
So, you don't want to be breathing the radium
into your body. Stuck, behind a gauge face, it's
fine. Just don't mess with it.

See http://www.qsl.net/ve3bdb/hazards.html for more info.

-- 
--
Ryan Gill              rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
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