Thought this was a neat history of radium, and how it fell out of favor (rightly). https://www.theatlantic.com/health/...g-was-not-the-answer/273780/?single_page=true PS. if any of you have any radium in the form of timepieces you'd like to get rid of, happy to take it off your hands
I'd use common sense. Don't take the bezel off and touch the dial without gloves. Don't sleep with it on and have your hands near your head. Stuff like that. Not that I would do this with any other watch. gatorcpa
I would add to @gatorcpa's sound advice: Do not remove the crystal to lick the dial. Or crush up broken pieces of lume for use in homemade make-up or "wonder creams". Or if you can't help yourself, at least do not do this often.
Also recommend against opening up a watch where the radium lume is flaking off onto the dial/crystal.
I have a booklet of radium hands that I think are original. Under the brown hands there is brown from radium burn. The green still glowes. So could there be watches out there with replaced hands that still glow? This booklet contains a number of hands in different sizes. I do realize that the booklet has protected the hands. But these hands are still usable. I do keep them in a lead container. So we need to be careful when handling.
You aren't working with it in concentration the way she was. The "Radium Girls" were licking brushes that had radium paint all day, every day. If you live in the Western US, where most of the uranium mines are, you will be far more exposed to radiation from the soil than you will ever get from wearing of a radium dialed watch. For normal use, you should be OK. gatorcpa
I was just doing some research about proper storage solutions for my radium dial Cyma WWW. I found lab grade "lead pigs" online, but even that's not a long term solution - apparently 1cm solid lead wall thickness still only halves the (otherwise quite high) radiation! [emoji15] I can see my wife winning this game, it's gonna have to go [emoji25]
Additional reading: https://www.damninteresting.com/undark-and-the-radium-girls/ The Radium Girls used to paint their teeth with the stuff FOR FUN.
I mean, i can see that (Maybe because I'm in my 20s haha) Who wouldnt want cool glowing teeth to freak out their friends? Especially in an age when nobody knew the dangers of radium