What you see is the phosopher. The radum byproducs are a gas and they are long gone. What remains is lead and more raduim which is a metal similar to lead and gold but unstable like posters on a web forum. Alpha particles only travel a few mm anyway before decaying, I have to hold the Gieger counter cm away to get a reading above background. Sometimes I wipe down the bench with a 99percent wipe, but that it to keept the dust to a minumum.
I would not eat any of it. If it make you feel better an N95 mask might be of use. I sometimes use that. In some ways use the finger cots as there is going to be trace amounts. One should wash ones hands. Which one should do anyway. Not licking them or picking ones nose is also advised.
The problem with radiations is is is
statistical. If it gets
inside the body it can build up and eventually damage a cell wheich then can become cancerous. (Or so they say I often get things wrong.) Poisen on the other hand is a chemical reaction much easier see and measure. The Heavy metal acts like any other heavy metal in the body. Most is flushed away. Others settle in and become part of your being.
Ventelated room is better than sealed bag as there is more room for things to spread about. I got a Geiger counter on reccomendation from other here. I see others posted while I was writing this. I guess they do not show the disney film with mousetraps anymore. Google "Our friend the atom." At one time it was in the public domain, but the mouse may have clawed back the copyright.
As for the hands good luck. Omega is controlling the supply. I spent most of the week searching for 351 hands. Curiosly the hand I think that may be the correct one does not glow as much. The other hand glows like your photographs and the more generic AS and chronograph hands. Not sure when Omega started to use lumanova. (and too lazy to look it up.)
Ofrie did have some hands. I think one is going to have re lumed hands anyway.
I have been experimenting myself with craft store glitter and paint. I spilled some, and now my trash can glows when I turn off the light. I could get the branded stuff, but it looks and works the same at a fraction of the price. I clean this with 99 percent and a duster. What you do not want is it concentrated, where it is more likely to affect others.
I am told drinking copius amounts of cheap beer, is the best thing one can do with suspected exposure. Back in the day when they were tested the radium girls, the ones who drank every friday after work had no systems.
And since someone else posted while I was writing this. A ziplock will block any alpha radiation. on the other hand it concentrates the gas. And the gas is what you do not want to consume. This gas occurs naturally in the US and many houses have radiation detectors and extractor for it in the basement.
I think I will hit reply before the next person does.
