![]() In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage-until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease. That said, I am not a nuclear physicist, and I am really young, so to my understanding radiation exposure is more of a concern, which is why I have decided to err on the side of caution.Inspired by a true story, RG, offers a wry, unflinching look at the peculiarly US obsessions with health, wealth, and commercial science. And I won't lie, the shock from realizing the implications of putting a naked dial and handset inches from my face was also a contributing factor to that decision. That, radon buildup, and residual radiation concerns just convinced me it wasn't worth the risk. Personally, I purged my collection of radium watches a while ago, as I wasn't confident in many of their capabilities to retain an adequate seal to keep in the radioactive dust. Radium is probably at its most dangerous when the person who owns it doesn't know about it. Ultimately, if you're aware of the risk, and if you have the correct knowledge regarding the proper treatment of radium watches, I feel that owning them, wearing them, etc is not really a significant issue. I even relumed one of them for fun, and I didn't take any precautions when I did. When I first started out with vintage watches, I purchased lots of cheap project watches with radium dials, and would tinker with them because I was fascinated, and didn't know enough about vintage watches and radium to have any concern about the lume. ![]() A radium watch becomes hazardous only when someone opens one and tinkers with the dials, inhaling radioactive dust particles." Donald Blaufox, the chairman of the department of nuclear medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. That means a person who owns a radium watch (and presumably isn't wearing it 24 hours a day), has little to worry about, said Dr. One study by the Public Health Service many years ago found that a person who wears a radium watch for 24 hours a day over the course of a year could conceivably be exposed to 65 to 130 millirems of radiation.īy way of comparison, the average person is exposed to about 300 millirems of background radiation in a typical year, and a single chest X-ray exposes a patient to about 5 to 10 millirems of radiation. "The watches are likely to emit as much radiation today as they did when they were first manufactured, but experts say that in reality, the risk to wearers is probably low. The metal casing and the crystal of the watch provide some degree of protection as the alpha particles are blocked and only the gamma rays penetrate the watch. In all seriousness, the radium in the lume is still radioactive, however, it is far more dangerous if inhaled or ingested. I feel fine after wearing my 1961 Rolex GMT, absolutely fine This is totally arbitrary but just fits my comfort zone at this time. I also tend to wear radium watches only about once/week. I no longer keep them in a safe with my other watches because of radon buildup and keep them out in ventilated areas in various places. ![]() They are among my most beautiful watches. How many of you maybe limit the amount of time wearing them, and if so, how often do you feel comfortable wearing one? Have you sold off radium watches because of anxiety? Will you not buy a radium piece because of anxiety. I would like to know how many out there refuse to own or wear radium watches, and how many would wear them every day without a second thought? The purpose of this post is not to rehash the science of radium watch risk, but rather to canvas the communityĪbout their personal behavior towards wearing radium pieces. ![]() My take from this literature is that there is some small but definite risk involved. Hi all, I know there have been numerous posts here and elsewhere about risks of owning/wearing radium watches. ![]()
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