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Radium in watch dials?

Greedo

Too weird to live, too rare to die
Greedo
Joined
May 2, 2011
Messages
2,603
As someone that sells watches on eBay, I've come into contact with several peculiar people, the latest of which all of a sudden didn't want a watch he just purchased because the dials are coated with radium to make them glow. Now, as far as I know, the use of radium as a source for luminescence on watch indexes was discontinued in the 60's not because of health risks for the wearer, but for the person assembling the watches, and thus coming in contact with the radium much more often.

Is there any rational reason to be worried about it?
 
Don't eat it. Here you go. Might be in there...no to worry.

radiation.png
 
Radium 226 decays via alpha radiation, which is stopped by the case and the front glass, but also via accompanying gamma radiation, which is not.

Wearing them exposes the wrist to a higher than suggested level of radiation over a period of time, but your wrists aren't particularly susceptible to radiation and it's unlikely to do you any harm if you're not wearing the watch 24/7 for years on end. The only site I could find that actually included radiation measurements features one watch that would give you roughly an x-ray's dose of radiation annually and another that would be more like 2.5 x-rays. This is concentrated on the wrist and would require 24/7 watch wearing. It's not particularly dangerous, but it's not completely insignificant either.

If you repair these watches then yes, you definitely do need to be careful about inhaling or ingesting the paint. Inhalation would be a really really good way to get lung cancer.
 
jasonpatterson said:
Radium 226 decays via alpha radiation, which is stopped by the case and the front glass, but also via accompanying gamma radiation, which is not.

Wearing them exposes the wrist to a higher than suggested level of radiation over a period of time, but your wrists aren't particularly susceptible to radiation and it's unlikely to do you any harm if you're not wearing the watch 24/7 for years on end. The only site I could find that actually included radiation measurements features one watch that would give you roughly an x-ray's dose of radiation annually and another that would be more like 2.5 x-rays. This is concentrated on the wrist and would require 24/7 watch wearing. It's not particularly dangerous, but it's not completely insignificant either.

If you repair these watches then yes, you definitely do need to be careful about inhaling or ingesting the paint. Inhalation would be a really really good way to get lung cancer.
Click to expand...

But if radiation hormesis has any merit at all, this is the type of exposure that may actually be beneficial.
 
Thanks everyone! Really cleared things up. :)
 
We had to wear "glow badges" when working "out of town", due to its proximity to the Nevada Test Site.
These would be tested at intervals to check for any exposure.
I heard of only one positive result.
A pilot had taken his badge home... a no-no.. and when it was tested showed exposure to radiation.
That was traced to an aircraft instrument that was on his chest of drawers at home, and the dial affected the glow badge.
 
My memory is that the girls who painted the watch dials would frequently lick their brushes to create a fine point. They all died horribly while pretty much ever single manufacturer and government agency pretended not to notice.
 
You sure it's radium? Watches that have glow in the phosphor panels nowadays use tritiated water in the mixture. The decay products from the Tritium exciting the phosphors.
 
Greedo said:
Is there any rational reason to be worried about it?
Click to expand...

Sure. Watch might get broken breaching the containment. Breathing in dust containing alpha emitters is bad for you.
 
Loss Leader said:
My memory is that the girls who painted the watch dials would frequently lick their brushes to create a fine point. They all died horribly while pretty much ever single manufacturer and government agency pretended not to notice.
Click to expand...

Ouch!

Brian-M said:
It basically destroyed their jaws:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_jaw

There was a similar problem with matchsticks, but caused by phosphor instead of radium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phossy_jaw
Click to expand...

Oh my. I see why some people are worried. Thanks for the info!
 
Mikemcc said:
You sure it's radium? Watches that have glow in the phosphor panels nowadays use tritiated water in the mixture. The decay products from the Tritium exciting the phosphors.
Click to expand...

Uhhh, there aren't any radioactive decay products from tritium...

3
1​
T →
3
2​
He
1+​
 + e
−​
 + ν

e​
"...it releases 18.6 keV of energy in the process. The electron's kinetic energy varies, with an average of 5.7 keV, while the remaining energy is carried off by the nearly undetectable electron antineutrino. Beta particles from tritium can penetrate only about 6.0 mm of air, and they are incapable of passing through the dead outermost layer of human skin.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium#cite_note-2"

The decay of the tritium itself (the high energy electron) is what excites the phosphors. Half life of 9+ years, the dial glow will fade appreciably in 20-30 years.
 
Being worried about radium is definitely not the craziest of woo. I think it is quite reasonable to want to keep the stuff as far away from yourself as possible. If you have old radium watches for sale, it is best to advertise them as such; there are radioactivity enthusiasts who love those things and would not mind paying extra if they are not out with their Geiger counters on Antique fairs looking for uranium glass.

Make sure you know your government's regulations on the sale of radioactive materials.
 
Just keep the risk in perspective. There lots of houses with radno gas in it as well.
Stick them in a lead lined box ..then no issue.
Don't lick the dial.
 
Sometime in the '60s I read a story about terrorists who smuggled plutonium into the US on watch dials. They scraped it off and apparently accumulated enough for a bomb. Even as a teenager I thought the idea/method was silly.
 
Heheh, I talked to someone ... oh it must have been 30 years ago. He had an old watch which could light up a darkened room. I told him it might emit radioactive rays. He said "oh, maybe I should not wear it too much" and ....

....

put it in his pocket.

:boggled::rolleyes:

Hans
 
Loss Leader said:
My memory is that the girls who painted the watch dials would frequently lick their brushes to create a fine point. They all died horribly while pretty much ever single manufacturer and government agency pretended not to notice.
Click to expand...

They also used the radium-doped paint as a cosmetic because they were told it was perfectly harmless.
 
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