Re: Household radioactive materials?

[JMUCKERHEIDE@delphi.com]

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Alex Z writes,

> When I worked for the Queensland Regulatory Authority, we repacked all the
> old RS for transport to the new state store. Of the hundreds of old smoke
> detectors, about 20 contained 100 microcuries of Ra 226 each!! Almost hot
> enough to start a fire (ha ha)

On the otherhand, Radithor contained 1 uCi Ra-226 and 1 uCi Ra-228 per half oz 
vial, 3.5 uCi Ra-226-equivalent. Eben Byers drank 3-4 vials/day (dying of bone 
degeneration and complicating factors in 3 years in 1932). On the otherhand
only something like 2 osteosarcoma deaths of Radithor cases are recorded in
the CHR data of US radium cases (about 4000), with an estimated
400,000-500,000 vials sold from the mid-'20s to mid-'30s. Radium ingestion in
the 1000s of dial-painters and others worldwide shows no adverse effects at
less than 1000 cGy (alpha to bone) equivalent to 50 uCi systemic uptake, 250
uCi ingestion. 

Consider also that the dial painters worked with luminous compounds and
products at the studio work benches for long days in very constrained working
conditions typically for a few years at a time. And they have no adverse
health effects absent the roughly 65 osteosarcomas and head carcinomas in the
154 or so cases with doses above 1000 cGy. Their health is better than the
unexposed population for most endpoints and total cancers and all-cause
mortality, (longevity? there are more than 1000 still alive which needs more
work), except a small increase in breast cancer (considering also both the
workbench external gamma exposure, and that only about 30% of the decay radon
is exhaled so that the radon is generally released from the bone and decays
with decay products also deposited in soft tissue) with growing evidence and a 
lot of work to be done on dosimetry and epidemiology, US DOE/gov't rad
protection interests terminated the program in the 80's. 

(See HPJ Suppl 1 Vol 44 1983; and former CHR Program Director Rowland's 1994
(limited) report/book on the program pushed through but minimalized by DOE,
recognizing that the gov't funded reports are not explicit about the lack of
effects - a sure way to be grantless.) 

> Regards
> 
>                         Alex Zapantis

And to you.

Regards, Jim