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Disposal Of 'radioactive Watch'.

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On 01/09/2019 at 22:32, Pettytom said:

The paint is pretty safe too, as long as it isn’t flaking.

 

I suppose Annie could always ask this lot for advice:

 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/radium-girls

probably quite a lot of artistic licence here, or as we call it today false news.

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38 minutes ago, Borista336 said:

probably quite a lot of artistic licence here, or as we call it today false news.

There’s quite a lot of truth in it.

 

Many of the radium girls died horrible deaths.

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There is a disparity between what people here think is acceptable versus what the nuclear industry think is ok. 

 

We have contaminated equipment that that is FAR less active than an old watch and we quarantine them like crazy. They are tripled bagged and stored in a nuclear licensed site. 

 

Just throwing them in the bin is scary and trading them with other people with no nuclear safety training is just as bad. 

 

If I came into possession with such a watch I would hand it over to our Health Physics people.  

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I'm intrigued to think that the OP is horrified by the thought of putting it into landfill. Where do you think the radium came from in the first place other than out of the ground?

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7 hours ago, metalman said:

I'm intrigued to think that the OP is horrified by the thought of putting it into landfill. Where do you think the radium came from in the first place other than out of the ground?

Going by your logic it is ok to put uranium into landfill, after all it did come from the ground. 

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Landfill is not a problem, and I never get horrified.

It contains no significant amounts of uranium and it originated from a star in a Galaxy far, far away.

It is the nature of the source and the way alpha particles to do harm that concerns me and because I live in Sheffield, popping it in the bin would more than likely mean that it would end up in the Incinerator.

I am unsure if in Incinerator, the now exposed radium containing paint became airborne it would cause it to become a measurable risk.

Thanks for everybody's thoughts.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Annie Bynnol said:

Landfill is not a problem, and I never get horrified.

It contains no significant amounts of uranium and it originated from a star in a Galaxy far, far away.

It is the nature of the source and the way alpha particles to do harm that concerns me and because I live in Sheffield, popping it in the bin would more than likely mean that it would end up in the Incinerator.

I am unsure if in Incinerator, the now exposed radium containing paint became airborne it would cause it to become a measurable risk.

Thanks for everybody's thoughts.

 

 

Fair enough, but I think the amount of radium paint on the hands and numbers of one watch would be completely negligible compared to the background radiation from natural sources. In any case I still think your best option is to keep it.

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On ‎04‎/‎09‎/‎2019 at 18:28, Pettytom said:

There’s quite a lot of truth in it.

 

Many of the radium girls died horrible deaths.

They used to insert a paint-loaded paintbrush into their mouths to sharpen the hairs to a point ready for painting the numbers on the dial. Their teeth were the first things to rot away. 

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This is much to do about nothing (ive heard that some where before) we breath radon gas in every day in some parts of the country, much much more than that watch will give off .

 

C & P

 

There are a number of important radon hotspots in the UK. The most noticeable one is Cornwall in the south-west where the average UK background dose is 7.8 mSv, nearly three times the national average. This is due to the presence of igneous granite, which naturally contains more uranium (10-20 parts per million) than other rocks.

Radioactive areas tend to be hilly, where igneous rocks have been forced to the surface or left behind by the erosion of softer sedimentary rocks (the Chiltern Hills are particularly radioactive, for example). The Yorkshire Dales sit on top of an underground deposit of pink granite called the Wensleydale Granite that lies underneath the Askrigg Block, and the Peak District features many granite outcroppings.

 

http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2011/12/28/radiation-in-the-uk/

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1 hour ago, kidley said:

This is much to do about nothing (ive heard that some where before) we breath radon gas in every day in some parts of the country, much much more than that watch will give off .

 

C & P

 

There are a number of important radon hotspots in the UK. The most noticeable one is Cornwall in the south-west where the average UK background dose is 7.8 mSv, nearly three times the national average. This is due to the presence of igneous granite, which naturally contains more uranium (10-20 parts per million) than other rocks.

Radioactive areas tend to be hilly, where igneous rocks have been forced to the surface or left behind by the erosion of softer sedimentary rocks (the Chiltern Hills are particularly radioactive, for example). The Yorkshire Dales sit on top of an underground deposit of pink granite called the Wensleydale Granite that lies underneath the Askrigg Block, and the Peak District features many granite outcroppings.

 

http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2011/12/28/radiation-in-the-uk/

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

 

See how that turns out.

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Radium-butter.jpg
 

But in all seriousness, you've probably encountered the biggest health risk from this watch out of all of us:

 

Quote

"The study found that 30 radium dial watches, when kept in a poorly ventilated space the size of "a typical boxroom" (UK-speak for a small bedroom or storage room) produced radon levels a whopping 134 times the recommended maximum safe level. In addition the study says, " ... three of the watches in poor condition gave rise individually to radon concentrations – when kept in the same poorly ventilated room – well in excess of the threshold where Public Health England would recommend remediation." Occasionally folks have pointed out on various watch forums that radium's decay products (such as radon) pose a potential hazard, but this is the first study I'm aware of that shows that radon from radium dials can accumulate to such previously unsuspected high levels.

"https://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/wwii-military-watches-potentially-pose-serious-cancer-risk/

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