Rhiandmoi
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
Spotted on another board:
Just to be a spoil sport: many, if not all, glow-in-the-dark things are radio-active. Try putting a geiger-counter on a glow-in-the-dark watch.. It goes crazy!
-------------------- I think that hyperbole is the single greatest factor contributing to the decline of society. - My friend Pat.
posted
It depends. If the item is the kind that you expose them to light so they glow, then it is not. If it is the kind that you break/mix (glow sticks) then it is not. If it is perminently glowing, then it is probably radioactive.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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Modern tritium glass systems used by manafacturers of military watches pose no danger to the wearer, but the old radium paint numbers would indeed have made a geiger counter go nuts...
-------------------- This is where I come up with something right? Something really clever... Posts: 6552 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2002
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Well its sort of true. You can find plenty of references by searching for "luminous watch dials". They make some of them with radium, which is kind of nasty. We're surrounded by background radiation though. I can't really say whether the watch dials would make our environment significantly more radioactive or not. I dont think they use radium any more though, since much safer isotopes are now available, but radium lasts for thousands of years, so those products could still be in someones home, even if they lose their glow.
But its not true that all glow in the dark watches are radioactive. We've made big improvements in phospor glow in the dark products. These are the materials that aren't radioactive but do need to be charged up in light to glow. Newer materials can retain their glow for several hours, so they can basically glow all night. Which is a big improvement over older phospor materials that could only glow for a few minutes.
If you wanted to identify which kind a particular watch was, you could stick it in a totally sealed, dark container for a couple days, take it out with the lights off, and see if it still glows.
Posts: 2018 | From: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: Aug 2005
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I sure hope it's not radioactive - I'm not willing to give up my glow-in-the-dark nail polish and lipstick (yes, I really use these
On the upside, if it *is* radioactive, then maybe after a while my fingers and lips will just glow on their own and I can save money on makeup.
-------------------- "...and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does." ~~Groucho Marx~~ Posts: 392 | From: Virginia | Registered: Oct 2005
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Neko, that stuff is the phospor kind that needs to be charged up to glow (but can last several hours). Tritium is pretty expensive to waste in makeup, and any potential health risk would just be magnified by applying it where it will be consumed.
Posts: 2018 | From: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Jay Tea: Modern tritium glass systems used by manafacturers of military watches pose no danger to the wearer, but the old radium paint numbers would indeed have made a geiger counter go nuts...
Old radium watches were not allowed on military installations. I served on a couple nuclear subs and one of the guys happen to have one. It was no big deal until he cracked the crystal. It set off alarms and left a trail of papaer work a mile long.
Posts: 162 | From: Maryland | Registered: Aug 2003
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Bottom line is the quote from the OP is either totally wrong, or circa 1950's.
Posts: 97 | From: Florida - USA | Registered: Jun 2004
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According to Wikipedia, such clocks (and watches?) were made from 1913 to 1950. I wonder if any are still around or they still glow. No glow-in-the dark materials (such as toys or lipstick or... condoms?) made after that should be radioactive.
Posts: 4922 | From: Kyoto, Japan | Registered: Sep 2005
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Fiestaware, while not glow-in-the-dark, was among the most highly radioactive products available. I've seen some and its beautiful stuff--apparently there's a lot floating around the midwest US that can be bought at garage sales and such.
quote:Originally posted by Giant Communist Robot: Fiestaware, while not glow-in-the-dark, was among the most highly radioactive products available. I've seen some and its beautiful stuff--apparently there's a lot floating around the midwest US that can be bought at garage sales and such.
So true. If any of you live in or plan to visit the Charlotte area you can visit the Duke Power Energy Explorium (a free minature museum that also has info on the power plant as well as nature trails and fishing... next to the power plant) and they have an area where you can test the stuff yourself. It has the Coleman lantern nettings and various other items that you can get some good readings from but the orange ceramic dishware really sets the thing off.
-------------------- "The question for joining the protected forum for real magicians should be:
What is the use of women?" Steve W. from JREF's 'This is no fun' Posts: 7622 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Aug 2002
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When I studied photography, we used a soft brush with a small patch of Americium to clean negatives in the darkroom. Supposedly it helped remove static electricity? Anyway, thank gods for digital photography!
Posts: 4922 | From: Kyoto, Japan | Registered: Sep 2005
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Rhiandmoi
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
Well I spread some debunking goodness over on the other board, now to see if it is appreciated.
-------------------- I think that hyperbole is the single greatest factor contributing to the decline of society. - My friend Pat.
posted
In my hometown (Ottawa, IL), there was a plant that had highschool girls painting the watch faces with radium paint. It was hard to paint those little numbers, so they girls would wet the brush tips in their mouths to get a nice tip. Just as they were taught.
Surprisingly enough, many of them died at a young age due to cancer.
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OT: I thought I was the only one to wet paint brushes in my mouth, especially when doing fine detail work. It really works better than most other methods because you can get a nice sharp point that way and the spit seems to hold the bristles tightly together a lot better than water. A few people have told me I'd get lead poisioning but I live in an age of mostly non-toxic paint (I do understand that still doesn't mean fit for human consumption) so I don't worry about it too much. I still do it when doing facing paintings on my boy (but not if I'm doing them for other kids).
-------------------- "The question for joining the protected forum for real magicians should be:
What is the use of women?" Steve W. from JREF's 'This is no fun' Posts: 7622 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Aug 2002
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Chimera, you probably shouldn't do that with ordinary paints. I don't think any modern paints have lead but many do contain other harmful substances such as cadmium. (I suppose with "non-toxic" paints it is okay though.)
Posts: 4922 | From: Kyoto, Japan | Registered: Sep 2005
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Ganzfeld, cadmium is just as toxic as lead. When I was an electroplater, I had to get blood test every twelve months to test for lead, cadmium and other heavy metals
Posts: 28 | From: Victoria, Australia | Registered: Dec 2005
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This site has some good stuff on radioluminecent watches.
According to that, the radium-type watches will show up on a geiger counter. But those have been banned since the 1930's. Most of the glowing watches today are 'photoluminecent', and simply absorb photons and release photons at a slow rate. Modern radioluminecent watches are somewhat expensive, and because of the short half-life of tritium (12 years), they won't last forever. I've got a tritium compass that's about 25 years old, and it's glow is now useless. Tritium is such a weak beta emitter, it's have to be a pretty sensitive geiger counter to detect it through the watch face.
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Ganzfeld: According to Wikipedia, such clocks (and watches?) were made from 1913 to 1950. I wonder if any are still around or they still glow. No glow-in-the dark materials (such as toys or lipstick or... condoms?) made after that should be radioactive.
Those old radium products are still as radioactive as ever (half life over 1000 years), but they don't glow anymore because the luminous paint wears out. So theres some risk of people inhering them as antiques without even knowing they're radioactive. Radium without the luminous paint glows faintly, but not perceptibly in the concentrations used.
Posts: 2018 | From: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: Aug 2005
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Back in the 80s I remember admiring jewelry made from old watch parts, until an older friend pointed out that the watch faces contained uranium, and my ears would probably fall off. Who knew?
They were very expensive, so I never bought any, and my ears are still intact.
Posts: 1651 | From: Columbus, Ohio | Registered: Aug 2004
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Yes, there was a time when radioactive materials were used to make things glow, or even to just appear whiter ...
Radium had already been used in toothpaste (Radiogen), why not use thorium instead? Auer had the patent, and with the thorium in hand they were ready to hit the ground running. They even formulated the following potential advertisement: "Use toothpaste with thorium! Have sparkling, brilliant teeth—radioactive brilliance!" http://www.orau.org/ptp/articlesstories/alsos.htmPosts: 629 | From: Greenwood, IN | Registered: Dec 2005
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