glowrings and radiation

200fr

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Oct 12, 2003
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Has anyone actually tested glowrings with equipment, to see if they might randomly emit minute amounts of dangerous matter? what happens if you eat them, not that i would. just wondering. is there any danger at all ownening these things


Thanks, Jai
 

James S

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Aug 27, 2002
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on an island surrounded by reality
This topic has been covered with truly excruciating detail here in the past, as well as our interpretations of the NRA regulations regarding them.

You should be able to turn up a LOT of threads here with some searching. The best on with some actual math trying to calculate the doses involved is HERE but make sure to read further than just the actual post I linked to as there is alot of extra information.

The point to take away is that a glow ring is almost completely harmless /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif With the right equipment you can actually measure some radiation outside the case, but it won't make it through the fabric of your pocket much less through your skin into your reproducing bits. If you eat them and absorb the tritium you still wont get hurt.

The reason they are illegal in the US is not because any single or multiple ones you might own will cause any problem, but because our government is worried about millions of them showing up in landfills. They don't consider a key fob to be a usage of tritium that is worth the potential clean up costs. Most of us around here consider that to be silly, but have yet to run for office on the platform of reforming the NRA /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

Double_A

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Jul 15, 2003
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200fr-

I just measured my 3 yr old glowring (old style).

Background radiation counts at my location average 15 counts per minute.

I measured the glowring at a distance of 1 cm from the probe and got an increase to an average of 50 counts per minute.

When I slipped a 3x5 inch index card in between the probe and glowring the count dropped about in half to about 25-30 cpm

GregR
 

BlindedByTheLite

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yeah, there was a discussion on this awhile ago..

i think it was determined that you're safe as long as you don't eat so many hundreds of the glowrings. hahaha
 
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