Re: Another aspect of "Uranium in the Glaze of Fiestaware"

[Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 09:40 07.06.1996 -0500, you wrote:
>I follow the thread of this subject with interest, some amusement and a lot
>of concern.  When I was young (a long time ago) my family had a large set of
>fiestaware.  Of all of the seven or eight colors in that set, only the
>orange one was radioactive (I discovered much later).  However, we did not
>know about that at the time.  We used the set routinely for lunch and dinner
>(supper).  When the set was not in use it was stored in a cabinet in such a
>manner that no one could have been exposed to any radiation from the orange
>plates and cups and saucers.  So the exposure only occurred when the set was
>in use, about an hour a day for fifteen or twenty years.  None of my family
>suffered any ill effects from either the radioactive material, if any, that
>got into the food, or the radiation from the surface.  I estimate in
>retrospect that I, and each member of my family,  might have received a
>total effective dose equivalent over the twenty years of at most 75 mrem,
>and a skin dose of 730 mrad.  These doses cannot be harmful!!!!!!!!!!!  My
>concern is that we are talking about this at all.  Fiestaware is neither a
>hazard nor a risk.  No one should be told not to use it.  We do ourselves
>and the public (to say nothing about the legislators and regulators) a huge
>disservice when we even suggest using something like fiestaware is at all
>risky.  Maybe the food one eats from the fiestaware might be risky if one
>ate too much.  But the doses one might get from using fiestaware are too
>small to even think about.  Simply because the surface dose rate is
>measurable doesn't mean that the dose one might get is significant.  Dose is
>what counts, not dose rate.  But you all know that.  I guess most of this is
>opinion, but it is informed opinion I believe.  Al Tschaeche xat@inel.gov
>
>========================================================================

In addition to what I wrote recently I have another thought:

In Radiation Protection there is also another concept: "Not controllable
exposure" and "controllable exposure".

When you donīt know about the exposure like you did when you used the
fiestaware it seems to me to be of the not controllable sort and probably
there is no reason to worry about it, especially since nobody put the
uranium in the glaze deliberately, knowing it could do you harm - and of
course since the doses were negligible. 

But when you know, that using this kind of ware will cause an exposure -
even if it is extremely small - there is no problem in controlling it. You
just donīt use it any more and the manufacturer can produce the same nice
ware without using uranium - as I explained before! 

Are there really no regulations in the US for radioactivity in consumer
products? I cannot believe it. The Austrian regulations are dealing with
some consumer products (like radionuclides in watches) and we have also an
Austrian Standard for the maximum tolerable activity in tiles - if anyone is
interested in it, please contact me at my e-mail  schoenho@via.at.

Franz Schoenhofer
Federal Institute for Food Control and Research
Radiochemistry
Kinderspitalg. 15
A-1095 Vienna 
Austria
Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 Wien
Tel./Fax:	+43-1-4955308
Tel.:		+43-664-3380333
e-mail:		schoenho@via.at