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Watch Out!!
The Times: Radiation alert for glow-in-dark war watches Families keeping Second World War wristwatches as mementos could be at “serious risk” of cancer because of the radiation they emit, according to research. Collectors or families storing wristwatches from the 1920s to 1960s which used radon-based paints to make their dials glow in the dark could be absorbing dangerous doses of radiation. Scientists from the University of Northampton and Kingston University have carried out the first work to determine just how harmful radioluminescent paint is when kept in the home. Radon exposure is the second leading cause of lung cancer deaths after smoking. Scientists found a collection of 30 antique radium-dial watches gave rise to radon concentrations 134 times greater than the UK’s recommended “safe” level when kept in a space the size of a typical box room. Three of the watches in poor condition individually produced radon concentrations — when kept in the same poorly ventilated room — well over the threshold where Public Health England would recommend treatment. The authors, Dr Robin Crockett, of the University of Northampton, and Professor Gavin Gillmore, of Kingston University, warn these levels are high enough to be dangerous even in much larger spaces, such as whole houses. Dr Crockett said: “These results show that the radon emitted from individual watches can potentially pose a serious cancer risk. This is of concern because in addition to military watches being particularly prized by collectors, many individual radium-dial watches are kept as mementoes by ex-servicemen and their descendants. “They have the potential to pose a significant health hazard to themselves and their families. Smokers are particularly at risk.” |
Oh Dear! All that time I spent in front of luminous cockpit instruments and wearing a luminous watch: I should have been dead years ago.
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Cheers ORAC. Your concern for fellow Prooners gives me a nice, warm glow...
:p:ok: |
FED (#2),
You and me both ! I'm sitting propped up in bed with a luminous clock 18 in each side of me. Pushing 97 (not out). I'll take my chances ! Danny. |
Remember the Trim phone with the glow in the dark dial, these were radioactive but were shown to not cause a problem, well until concerns were raised and BT withdrew them, a dial on it's own was safe, but they removed them and put them all together, all 2000,000 of them, then they had a problem :E
Radiation |
I used to wear my father's WWII issue watch to school. In one physics demonstration, the teacher used tweezers to remove a radioactive sample from its protective box and pass a geiger counter over it. It gave a reading. He asked for volunteers and I handed over father's watch for testing. The geiger counter went off-scale. Oops.
No sign of wrist cancer so far, and I'm not planning on dying of it. Cheers. |
After spending some considerable time with a lapful of luminous instruments then certain possibilities could arise.
My father flew continuously from !941 until 1955 including some ten years on the Halifax where there was a full house of instruments in front of him. Whilst sitting in a cockpit one of the nearest soft body organs is the prostate. My father succumbed to that in 1997. I flew from 1960 until 1981 aircraft with either full or partial luminous instruments. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002 but luckily it was at an early stage and was effectively cured. One wonders whether the two are connected. Should the two be connected then it was all the Air Forces fault. Ignorance of the effects at the time is no excuse as has been demonstrated by other occasions, Christmas Island, Gulf War Syndrome etc.. It could be a case for those ex pilots, flight engineers and navigators having a case to claim compensation for the stress and suffering from this disease. Any litigation lawyers reading this? ;):ok: |
Like living in Cornwall - it's all a matter of ventilation....
if you wear the watch you're waving it around (unless you are comatose under the bar table) so the radon constantly disperses |
There is a book by the title, Radon Girls. These were the painters of the watch faces. Most all died of cancer...
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As mention, instruments also have radium paint and many aircraft instruments find their way into private hands. The BBMF hangar used to have a cordoned area for old instruments.
Aircrew watches of the 60s and 70s used to have a T on the face denoting Tritium. |
He asked for volunteers and I handed over father's watch for testing. The geiger counter went off-scale. We came upon a vertical shaft with the rotting remains of a ladder attachment on the side. I declined the invitation to use the ladder so we lowered the Geiger counter on a rope and it went berserk when it reached the bottom. I was now ordered to descend which I did by hanging on to various bits sticking out of the shaft supported by a rope and harness. The bottom was dark so I pulled my torch out and flashed it around to come upon a skeleton lying on the floor with the counter by its watch hand. Levitating myself to the top again we decided that the best thing we could do was to report the occurrence to the police. They came along and recovered the remains but they never established whom the male person was. We did however go to his funeral to give him a bit of a send off. |
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.gmf...841eeac9f3.jpg
I remember back in 1972 when I was working in the Armoury / SSA going round a 1066 Hastings with O/C Armoury measuring the radiation off of the various luminescent bits. Don’t think anything came of the readings but it took a further 25+ years before these started appearing in Museum Aircraft. |
Back in the 60's one of my duties was to be part of a six man "Special Safety Team"., that would get shipped out if there was a crash involving a Nuclear Weapon. We would regularly practice doing "sweeps" with a Geiger Counter & a radioactive isotope, which would be hidden in long grass. On one practice sessions, while waiting for the isotope to be hidden, I took off the Omega aircrew watch that I was issued with & was amazed to find that it was radiating more than ten times the practice isotope !!
I have worn the watch on & off for the past 50 years. I glow in the dark a bit, but no other problems. |
Like this??
Even accounting for the decay this is a lot of radiation, also old camera lenses with Thorium? |
There is a book by the title, Radon Girls. These were the painters of the watch faces. Most all died of cancer... Not quite comparable to "normal" use. These poor girls were told to "sharpen" the point of their paintbrushes by licking them, and they painted scores if not hundreds od watches per day. And the company not only refused to support them, but actively lied about them, including the implication that one of the girls had died of tertiary syphillis .......... when it was always bone cancer, starting - funny old thing - in the jaw. Whatever the book is called, it's a cracking good read (author Kate Moore). But so little was known about radioactivity in them days .... the girls would also sometimes paint their teeth to give a "brilliant" smile on dates ......... |
My father spent 20 plus years flying aircraft with 'radio active' dials. Also wore an aircrew watch with a large luminous dial for 30 plus years.
He died of old age - not cancer or radiation poisoning!!! |
There's an area of Smiths Industries in Cheltenham that can't be built on due to their war time work with the dials and it's contaminated.
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Originally Posted by Yamagata ken
(Post 10173601)
I used to wear my father's WWII issue watch to school. In one physics demonstration, the teacher used tweezers to remove a radioactive sample from its protective box and pass a geiger counter over it. It gave a reading. He asked for volunteers and I handed over father's watch for testing. The geiger counter went off-scale. Oops.
No sign of wrist cancer so far, and I'm not planning on dying of it. Cheers. I realised what was probably causing the 'bruise' then! |
Originally Posted by Yamagata ken
(Post 10173601)
I used to wear my father's WWII issue watch to school. In one physics demonstration, the teacher used tweezers to remove a radioactive sample from its protective box and pass a geiger counter over it. It gave a reading. He asked for volunteers and I handed over father's watch for testing. The geiger counter went off-scale. Oops.
The hazard described here is not so much direct radiation at the wrist as radon released into the air indoors. |
I realised what was probably causing the 'bruise' then! |
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