From: Patrick Jankowiak (recycler@swbell.net)
Date: Sat May 20 2006 - 13:17:20 PDT
Radium is not safe and the radium dials and switch toggles I have
surveyd do emit the more penetrating gamma rays.
As long as it is contained inside something, a small amount of radium
is OK but don't keep it in your pocket. One dial I have emits 4Mr/H
through the glass, measured at the glass. One would not want to sit in
front of that for 8 hours a day.
Ever see the old style toggle switches with the little (usually
yellowish) glass bead on the end of the toggle? That is full of radium
paint.
I found one of the ones on an old transmitter to be cracked, so I
covered it with JBweld epoxy. I am looking at ways to cut the ends of
the toggles off and replace them with something asethetic (as well as
then adding the toggle tips to my small and perfectly legal collection
of 'test sources') but have not gotten around to it yet except to tag
them as radioactive in case I become deceased and someone else comes
along to posess the transmitter.
The most common form of radium has a very long half life and is likely
to cause a cancer if ingested.
Should you ever touch the pointer or markings of radium paint (perhaps
a broken glass of the dial permitted this?), immediately go wash your
hands, scrubbing them to make sure the contaminant is gone. Encase the
washing objects such as the scotchbrite or brillo as well as the
offending object in a sealed plastic bag for disposal. Most cities
have hazardous waste collection and should accept such a thing without
getting too nosey. After all, thousands of clocks and watches were
made with the same stuff.
The best way to look at an instrument to guess about its radium
status, is to look at the paint on the pointers and numerals.
If they are dull yellow or brown in appearance, do not glow by
themselves, and do not glow after exposure to light, then it may be
radium, in which the paint is long ago burnt into non-flourescence. If
they glow by themselves continuously (quite rare these days for radium
paint) and the item is apparently painted rather than appearing to
have tiny and shiny glass ampoules/vials attached (tritium dial) then
it may be radium. The kind used in dials is RA-226 so its' as strong
today as it was 50 years ago, just the paint is burnt out.
My first advice if you are going to be checking or fiddling with these
things is to buy a geiger counter. A geiger counter will tell you
right away. Not a survey meter which are relatively insensitive, but
one with a real geiger tube. If in doubt, the geiger counter will
click about once a second from background radiation. A strong radium
dial will sound like rain on a steel roof in the headphones. A
reliable source for information and meters is:
http://www.radmeters4u.com/
and if you call them, they will actually talk to you. I own a
nukalert, BTW.
From the EPA:
"Radium-226, the most common isotope, is an alpha emitter, with
accompanying gamma radiation, and has a half-life of about 1600 years.
Radium-228 is principally a beta emitter and has a half-life of 5.76
years. Radium-224 has a half life of 3.66 days. Radium decays to form
isotopes of the radioactive gas radon, which is not chemically
reactive. Stable lead is the final product of this lengthy radioactive
decay series."
Internal contamination with radium cannot be undone. Please be careful
in your work.
PJ
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.
>
> Many thanks!
> ==========================================
> David Brubaker
> MVPA # 18115
> KCØNZN
> Owner - M151A2
> http://david.brubakers.us/mutt/mutt.html
> Da Pacem Cordium - Give Peace to Every Heart
>
> ===Mil-Veh is a member-supported mailing list===
> To unsubscribe, send e-mail to <mil-veh-off@mil-veh.org>
> To reach a human, contact <ackyle@gmail.com>
> Visit the searchable archives at http://www.mil-veh.org/archives/
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Tue Jul 18 2006 - 21:45:51 PDT