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Disposal Of 'radioactive Watch'.

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On 09/09/2019 at 22:48, Pettytom said:

You should sprinkle a little radium on your cornflakes every morning then.

 

See how that turns out.

I breath radon in every day, i live in a town that radon leaks out of the ground into your house, i dont know anybody thats suffered any ill effects.

  so i may sprinkle some on my cornflakes every morning, in a manner  

Edited by kidley
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Just now, kidley said:

I breath radium in every day, i live in a town that radium leaks out of the ground into your house, i dont know anybody thats suffered any ill effects.

  so i may sprinkle some on my cornflakes every morning, in a manner  

Are you sure that you haven’t confused Radium with Radon?

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4 minutes ago, Pettytom said:

Are you sure that you haven’t confused Radium with Radon?

you are very observant yes i did, thank you for noticing it. i will rectify the mistake.  

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7 minutes ago, kidley said:

you are very observant yes i did, thank you for noticing it. i will rectify the mistake.  

No worries. Enjoy your cornflakes 😀

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On 01/09/2019 at 21:19, Pettytom said:

I’ve tried to dispose of school radioactive sources on a few occasions. It isn’t cheap, or easy.

 

I’d be inclined to leave well alone. If you bin it, it could well break and expose someone to radioactive dust. The risk from that is probably quite low, but I wouldn’t be queuing up to breathe radium dust. 

 

You’ve got four choices really.

 

Leave in the lead lined bag in a safe place.

Sell it to a collector.

Bin it.

Contact one of the specialist chemical waste disposal companies.

 

The first two choices would be where I would go. The last one is likely to cost quite a bit and will probably generate a fair bit of admin.

Its not expensive, we have done low level chemicals and sources for colleges. Very few waste contractors can carry even low level radiation which is low enough for the kids to use or low enough to be able to move as non hazardous. If you have anything else, get in touch.

 

I am not suggesting disposal of the watch. I'm sure someone would want to buy it.

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Quote

 

True story this. When I was about 6 or 7 years old I was given a knackered old watch that had belonged to a long-dead relative. I noticed that the hands shone in the dark, so, being an inventive sort of child I decided to scrape the green paint off the hands and glue the resulting powder to the headlights of my newly acquired Dinky (I think) Mersey Tunnel Fire Service Land Rover. What a bedside table ornament that was.

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Hi, I'm interested in knowing if this tapageur bayard alarm clock is also likely to have radium paint and what to do with it. I don't have a geiger counter and due to travel restrictions at the time of writing won't be able to take it to a dealer.  3e3f18d4242e0438aa2383c4038975d4.jpgThank you

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I know the OP is from a while ago, but I'd like to point out that a watch dial like this would never increase in radioactivity unless you expose it so something more radioactive than itself.

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1 hour ago, the_bloke said:

I know the OP is from a while ago, but I'd like to point out that a watch dial like this would never increase in radioactivity unless you expose it so something more radioactive than itself.

The clock will have a glass/metal construction through which the alpha particles cannot pass.

The object becomes more hazardous as the radioactive paint flakes and over time turns into dust.

The dust can spread throughout the clock and if opened the dust is extremely hazardous and cannot be adequately cleaned up.

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3 minutes ago, Annie Bynnol said:

The clock will have a glass/metal construction through which the alpha particles cannot pass.

The object becomes more hazardous as the radioactive paint flakes and over time turns into dust.

The dust can spread throughout the clock and if opened the dust is extremely hazardous and cannot be adequately cleaned up.

My point still stands; the emissions don't increase, you'll just increase the exposure by breaking the watch. Just in case anyone else reading this thinks their old watch in a drawer is going to become more radioactive over time :)

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What an incredible thread, this place just never ceases to amaze me 🙄

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10 hours ago, the_bloke said:

I know the OP is from a while ago, but I'd like to point out that a watch dial like this would never increase in radioactivity unless you expose it so something more radioactive than itself.

The half life of radium is roughly 1600 years. So it won’t really have decreased in radioactivity either.

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