Radium in watch dials?

[John Jones]

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.

Glow-in-the dark gun sites also use tritium.

 

[Drs_Res]

For those who are interested.

Documentary: Radium City (1987)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLS6NCZPiSY

 

[shadron]

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.

Now that would be a dangerous idea. Plutonium as a dust is just about instantly pyrophoric, and coverts into microfine PuO2 particles dispersed in the heat.

 

[John Jones]

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.

James Bond?

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

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?

Cash his check and laugh at him.

 

[I Ratant]

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.

.
I had the opinion many years back that all the electronic devices flooding into the country from Japan had a very small piece of uranium inside.. and someday, at say a major sporting event like this Super Bowl, with all the video cameras, tablets, laptops, cell phone, the amount of uranium would reach the critical mass and explode!

 

[fuelair]

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.



Hans

So....did he have any kids? Did they join Professor Xavier's School......

 

[fuelair]

.
I had the opinion many years back that all the electronic devices flooding into the country from Japan had a very small piece of uranium inside.. and someday, at say a major sporting event like this Super Bowl, with all the video cameras, tablets, laptops, cell phone, the amount of uranium would reach the critical mass and explode!

But you learned the Uranium would all have to be crushed together to do it so you quit worrying. (?)

 

[I Ratant]

Ya get enough of it...

 

[Hamradioguy]

Good advice by all. The Health Physics Society's "Health Physics Journal" has had a number of articles about this over the years- The greatest concern seems to be from old aircraft instruments, particularly public exposure from static displays. That risk is very small but not zero, and it's generally easier just to keep people from sitting in the cockpit even though risk is trivial for that kind of exposure. ("De Minimis" in legal speak). 40 years of sleeping next to a night table with Grandpa's large radium dial Big Ben alarm clock and the risk goes up, but unless you break the glass and wipe the dials onto your face I'd still not be all that concerned. However, the Government is concerned enough that many military surplus radios that had radium indicating meters got sold with the meters removed.
The greatest concern is the tendency of people to sue over trivial matters. That kind of risk may be the real concern here.