Reading a very interesting book about Atomic disasters

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UncleDicky
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Reading a very interesting book about Atomic disasters

Post by UncleDicky »

For reasons I won't go into I've been reading rather a lot about atomic disasters and the effects of radiation on the body. The book I am currently reading is "Atomic Accidents - A History" by James Mahaffey
I'm currently in a chapter about watchmaker's jaw - this was a very nasty type of radiation poisoning which typically ended up killing the women who painted luminous paint onto watch and clock faces, gunsights and instruments. It wasn't really stopped until WW2 despite legislation. Women would frequently lick brushes to get a fine point on them - brushes dipped in luminous paint.

Now I am sure we all have/have had vintage pre 1950s watches, especially military ones before and many of those had luminous numerals painted with radium paint. Now radium paint only lasts 3 years before it loses its glow BUT due the half life of radium, the radiation is still there, over 100 years it will be merely 4% less radioactive than it was when it was applied. The problem is further compounded by paints being of different strengths depending on who made them/mixed them or applied them. One watch might be relatively harmless whereas another may be giving out horrendous doses that could seriously harm your health.

To make this even more scary, there's been a lot of publication around the after effects of the Chernobyl disaster with the 30 year anniversary last year. What has become obvious is that there was a general concerted groupthink which ended up denying the effects of the contamination. Now I was caught in the rain storm that fell on the Highlands from that cloud in May 1986 as the then 15 year old me was on an extended hike through the part of the Cairngorms which got royally dumped on. The exercise was called off after 12 hours due to the radiation levels but my group of 3 were not found and alerted for another 12 hours. IN that time we were we'll ad truly soaked. Scarily we were also getting all our water from the hillside burns. I've been undergoing tests to identify a chronic health condition I have mysteriously developed and one of my fellow pupils on that trip died of Leukaemia at the age of 39 - no record of cancer in his family whatsoever. I've lost touch with the other chap. There is moot that the condition may be linked to Caesium exposure and the only place I would have ever been exposed to that would have been in that fall out cloud 30 years ago.
The other scary thing about radiation is that we think we know it all, the problem is that the science of radiation poisoning is very much in its infancy having only really been properly identified in the mid 30's, the genetic effects and long term effects of radiation are very much new territory having only been studied for 20 years or so.

Whilst I was researching all this I came across the following blog page by a watch enthusiast who has also worked in the Nuclear industry before, you've probably read it but if you are new to collecting old watches, especially military ones from the early 20th C then it is a good idea to read it and absorb what he is saying. Certainly, even if the paint is no longer luminous it will still be radioactive, if it has broken down it can easily revert to dust form which is highly dangerous if ingested or breathed in. Lastly, when opening the case of such a watch, be very careful and wear a mask and goggles, an overall - to be binned afterwards and a pair of latex gloves. a watch case of this era with luminous paint may well contain radon gas which is given off by the radium as it breaks down.
http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/luminous.php


Over the last 10 years, government has been taking the dangers of old radioactive paint a lot more seriously. They're carrying out a major clean up at Dalgety Bay in Fife at the moment, post WW2 hundreds of tonnes of surplus aircraft and ship instruments were dumped in the sea off the coast. However there was so much radium paint on the items that the beach has been out of bounds to the public for years. The MOD was taken to court to force them to clean up the mess and to dispose of the items properly. Again, the real danger being in the break up of the paint into it's particulate form and those particles being ingested.

I've got several vintage WW1 watches, I'm going to borrow a friend's geiger counter to check the levels they are currently giving off.

The advice is generally don't stop collecting but be very aware of the issue.
C9 Marine Chronometer Small Seconds, C8 Mk2 Aviator, C600 Trident Pro; Lum-Tec Combat B19, Elliot Brown Canford, Smiths Everest, Casio Protrek.
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tempus fugit
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Re: Reading a very interesting book about Atomic disasters

Post by tempus fugit »

I'll look to pick the book up, thanks for the post.

A book you may also like as covers similar ground in places (and is also a very interesting read) is Snake Dance: Journeys Beneath a Nuclear Sky by Patrick Marnham.

How did it go with the Geiger counter test?
Alex
4x Omega, 3x CW, 1x Tudor, 1x Tag
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