Re: List of materials containing naturally occurring nuclides

[SBD <sbd@co.disp.mindef.nl>]

Please do not forget that
1.    the US are not the only producers of lantern mantles! Mantles produced
nowadays in some (asian?) countries may still contain thorium. Recently  one
of my employees bought a fishery lantern. In the box we found a blue bagged
lantern mantle ("Anchor"), made in Shanghai, China. So even if you control
US products , this does not mean that you control everything.

2.    many lists of package contents from lantern mantles all over the world
(if present) never have mentioned thorium being in it at all.
A warning: not mentioning thorium can mean 2 things: (a) there actually is no
thorium in it or (b) it is in there but you just do not tell. The only way to
be sure that you have a mantle without thorium is when the package actually
says "non radioactive" (example: Camping gaz) or the combinatoin of the text
"non radioactive" and a radiation symbol crossed out (Coleman).

Jetty Middelkoop
Radiological Protection Service
Netherlands Ministry of Defense


Sarah Hayes wrote:

> Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that the lantern
> mantles manufactured today contain thorium in them.  The Reactor Sharing
> Program at UMass Lowell has several packets of these mantles in their
> "demo" kit, and thorium is actually listed on the package contents of the
> older mantles, whereas the newer packages don't list this "ingredient".
>
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