Re: Ignored consumer goods with Ra-226.

["David Whitfill" <DWhitfil@kdhe.state.ks.us>]

The problem is not so much with the instruments themselves, rather the
somewhat lucrative market of radium dial stripping (illegal in many
states). If you want to see a mess, then stumble upon on an illegal radium
dial stripping operation-adds a whole new perspective on alpha
contamination (and beta...and gamma). And I wonder what they did with the
solvent...




Kerembaev@cs.com@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu on 02/03/2000 07:28:59 AM

Please respond to radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu

Sent by:  radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu


To:   Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
cc:

Subject:  Re: Ignored consumer goods with Ra-226.


In a message dated 2/2/00 11:33:39 Pacific Standard Time,
sbd@co.disp.mindef.nl writes:

<< Could anybody explain to me why the existence of consumer goods with
radium
 paint is constantly ignored by many (inter)national authorities?
  >>

I can see two reasons:
There are always these two reasons. ;-)

Economical.
Who will pay for the surveys, clean up, surveys, clean up and again
surveys.
D&D. W.W.II museums as well as the rest of the museums are on the border of
their economical survival.....

Political.
Normally, new regulations should be created with the implementation
mechanism. It is easy to implement the Regs when you have a leverage. What
kind of leverage could be with "unlicensed" veterans? Do you really think
that they do care about those probabilistic models and a "new evidence"?
Another thing when the site/base is decommissioning and a museum is moving
to
a different place or disolves. These are the only, to my knowledge, cases
when W.W.II relics with Ra-226 have been removed from the museums. There
has
been done a some "regulatory" work on resells (pawn shops) of the consumer
products with Ra-226. Actually, I am, my self, looking for a set of wrist
watches with Radium dials. Does anybody want to sell?
I think, it is easy to handle a store which has a commercial license with
the
local authorities.
My guess, in three-five years, when there will not be many W.W.II veterans
left around... .....  Citation will start changing. Next generation, will
choose less exposure with less memory. Of course this is only my opinion,
based on LNT.

Best regards and a Happy Thursday to everyone!

Emil.

Why people have three different languages; writing, spoken and thinking?
Why can't we write what we say and tell what we think?

"Unknown Author"
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html



************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html