Re: radioactive jewelry

["Frank R. Borger_(FRB)" <frb@gammex.com>]

Ruth,

And do your ears look like Dr Spock's?  (grin)



Frank R. Borger - Senior Physicist, Gammex RMI
fborger@gammex.com phn 608-828-7289 fax 608-828-7500

How many physicists does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one. According to Heisenberg, all you have to do
is observe the light bulb, and you change it.


>>> "ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com> August 1, 2000 14:54 >>>
Funny you should ask.  In 1960 I had a summer job trying to make an "emerald
laser." I had occasion to look at some silicate crystals at the Smithsonian,
and one of the staff gave me a piece of uranium-doped quartz, from which I
had a pair of earrings made that I wore for a number of years and through
two pregnancies (I ultimately lost them).  The activity was undetectable
above background.  I have never, as far as I can tell, suffered any ill
effect.

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: Karam, Andrew <Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 10:39 AM
Subject: radioactive jewelry


>Greetings, all.  I received a phone call from a local reporter doing a
story
>on radioactivity in antiques.  She asked me what I could tell her about an
>incident in Buffalo in the 1980s in which a number of rings were found to
>contain radioactivity, and said that apparently law suits were filed.  She
>also thought that the incident was written up in either Health Physics or
>some other journal.
>
>I have searched Quest and the HPJ WWW page, but have been unable to find
any
>reference to this under "jewelry".  I'd really appreciate any help from
>Radsafe-land on this one so I can get back to the woman to give her some
>specifics as to the amount of activity, the probably dose, and expected
>effects.
>
>Thanks -
>
>Andy
>
>PS I do not get the idea that this reporter has any particular ax to
>grind or that she is predisposed to think this is bad or a scandal.  I
think
>she's just interested.
>
>Andrew Karam, CHP              (716) 275-1473 (voice)
>Radiation Safety Officer          (716) 275-3781 (office)
>University of Rochester           (716) 256-0365 (fax)
>601 Elmwood Ave. Box HPH   Rochester, NY  14642
>
>Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu 
>http://Intranet.urmc.rochester.edu/RadiationSafety 
>
>If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually
>never says anything at all.  (Miguel de Unamuno, quoted in "What is Life?"
>by Erwin Schrodinger)
>
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