Hello and sorry that my first Posting in this forum is a warning. I actually subscribed to this to submit this:
Tritium is not as harmless as one would think. Yes, it is a beta emitter, and betas only reach for a couple of mm. On the second view, the betas are producing secondary "Bremsstrahlung" (in english "breaking radiation", but bremsstrahlung is the internationalized word in nuclear physics), which is a broadband gamma radiation. This secondary radiation is NOT limited to a couple of mm.
It was also rightly said that Tritium is an instable isotope of H. So the remark about "dissolving fast" ("diffusing" is more appropriate in case of a gas term for a gas) was true BUT: fre Tr is reacting quite fast with everything "hydrogen-friendly"; so as soon as it finds a partner to make a chemical reaction, it will stay at its place for long, maybe VERY long; once in your lungs, it COULD be used by your body to make some water for the next ****, as mentioned. But it could also make a CH group in a molecule somewhere in your liver or your brain.
Tr lamps have been made with enormous intensities as airport illuminations, torches a.s.o. in the soviet union / ukraine , and could be bought in europe until 1999 when a new import rule stopped this nonsense.
An unbroken Tr lamp will do no hurt anybody, but a broken vial of Tr should be handled with care. You would not feel anything but additional radiation in small amounts over a longer time period has an effect like accelerated ageing. So it accumulates to your xray pictures, overseas flights, smoke detector radiation, illuminated watch radiation, natural radiation, "trapped in concrete"-radon radiation, Cs radiation from bomb tests, Ca radiation from reactor burnouts, a.s.o. everybody should take care to avoid as much possible sources as possible, although every single one is "unnoticeably weak".
So if an accident happens, don´t panic - you won´t die, but, open the window, close the room´s door to the other parts of your house, and especially put children out of the contaminated zone. Try not to crawl on the floor in search of broken parts with your nose in the contaminated region, but wait at least for a couple of hours. If using a vacuum for cleaning it up, you should place the body of the hoover on your window board so the exhaust air stream goes mainly to the outside. Remove the bag afterwards.Wash your hands after cleaning up / touching the parts, but without rubbing, just let the water run loosely along your skin.
Dudeldam (a nuclear physicist).
