[ RadSafe ] Re: Q-ray blanket containing radium

[NeilKeeney at aol.com]

Radsafers:
 
Some time ago while I was at FERMI NPS near Detroit, one of  the RP guys 
actually had one of these types of small blankets configured as a  corset.  It had 
belonged to his grandmother and he'd received it  after her death at the 
grand old age of, as I recall, 96 years of  age.  He said she would use it 
whenever she got a cold or had  joint aches and so forth.  He said that for a cold, 
she would  strap it on her lower back and wear it while sleeping.  For joint 
pains,  she'd wrap the affected limb in the corset.
 
This garment was also packaged in the original box and  had the literature 
with it which described, substantially, what K.S.  Parthasarathy indicates the 
web search revealed.  The isotope was stated to  be Radium but didn't, as I 
recall, specify the activity.  But, a  'casual' pass with an RO-2 open window at 
about 1 cm resulted in a read of  just over 20 mR/hr or, applying a 
conventional correction factor, about 80 mRad  (was I supposed to use SI Units here?).
 
Perhaps I can obtain further information if anyone  wants it; I think I may 
still have his contact info  somewhere... 
 
Best Regards,
 
Neil Keeney
NRRPT
Bartlett Nuclear
Currently at DCPP-SG Replacement Project
_neilkeeney at aol.com_ (mailto:neilkeeney at aol.com) 
______________________________________________________________________________
________
 
'Serious':  "When interest is important because of  penalty" L. Ron Hubbard 
PDC lectures, 1956..
______________________________________________________________________________
________

During early  seventies, some one brought an item called " Q-ray
blanket" to the  erstwhile MRC Environmental Radiation Research Unit,
located in one of the  subbasements of the Leeds General Infirmary. This
lab was then attached to  the Department of Medical Physics, University
of Leeds; if my recollection  is correct , it must have been brought by
a scientist working in the Leeds  regional centre of the National
Radiological Protection  Board;



The device contained a few microcuries of radium  contained  in  an
asbestos matrix. It also had a fine  heating  element which could be heated 
electrically. The "blanket" was  recommended for use to
cure a variety of diseases. On the sheet pasted to  the device there was
a write up to the effect that the curative effect of  the blanket was
appreciated by some members of British Parliament. I do not  know what
happened to the blanket after measurement, possibly it must have  been
sent for safe disposal!



A google search threw up the  following URL

_http://www.pems.adfa.edu.au/~htimmers/level1/Teaching/Health02/NucMed.pdf_ 
(http://www.pems.adfa.edu.au/~htimmers/level1/Teaching/Health02/NucMed.pdf) 

It   refered to the blanket thus:

" Other unusual products included  radioactive corsets for the treatment
of backache, and a more unusual   example of a curative device was the
Q-ray electro compress. Such a  compress was bought by a school teacher
at a jumble sale in Mansfield,  Nottinghamshire in 1986. The dry
compress contained natural uranium sewn  into an electric blanket and
was claimed to combine the natural properties  with heat. At the request
of the local police this blanket was retrieved by  the local Medical
Physics Department  at Queen's Medical Centre,  Nottigham, for disposal
and was found boxed complete with manufacturer's  literature including
medical testimonials and photographs of the compress  in use at St
Thomas Hospital London"

Now I am not sure that the  blanket contained radium or uranium

Is there any one in the list with  further  information?
K.S.Parthasarathy