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Should I be worried about radium?

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RichardHarris123
RichardHarris123

I'm a man of many talents, I  used to be a famous actor.  Hehe.

oldhippy
oldhippy

I don’t want to frighten you but, here is a bunch of watchmakers going to work.  

AndyHull
AndyHull

Ever was it thus, it seems.

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JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

Posted
Posted

This is not a radium dial.

 

Never touch a radium dial

Never touching radium dial might be tough to do if you're in watch repair. There may be a general perception that radium was discontinued a long time ago and is not really an issue today. I have some links below the talk about radium and when it was discontinued notice it wasn’t that long ago.

Then watchmakers have a habit of accumulating things like hand assortments that look brand-new filled with radium. Or even things like the wax kits made for fixing the hands can be radioactive.

 

Then for your watch I agree with everyone else there doesn't appear to be anything that looks like florescent material of any type..

 

https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/radioluminescent/radioluminescentinfo.htm

 

http://www3.epa.gov/radtown/antiques.html

 

http://elginwatches.org/help/luminous_dials.html

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  • 4 months later...
dman2112 Watch Enthusiast

dman2112

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Posted

Hello all,

I recently services a 1948 Glycine Bienne and it is in mint condition.  It is running beautifully and it has zero beat error and is running +2 sec per day.  I want to keep it, but I am concerned about the Radium.  Mayne I am being paranoid, but does anyone have any thoughts on this?  Should I sell it?

Any advice or experience with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

dman2112

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bobm12 Distinguished Member

bobm12

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I would wear it over my radiation suit....:D

Sorry, I couldn't help it!

In reality, the material on those hands will not affect you...you get more radiation in your daily activities out of our atmosphere than from that watch. What you need to be careful is from inhaling or touching the thing while re luming or working with those hands/dial. Just MHO.

Cheers,

Bob

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frenchie Distinguished Member

frenchie

Posted
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Don't sniff it, don't lick it.

My take: if it's not disintegrating, let it be. If it's crumbling, wet it to minimize dust, and remove everything that's falling apart (pegwood is great in my experience). You can replace it with a more modern material (matching the color is fairly easy with a bit or trial and error). I wear gloves/finger cots any time I work on watches; throw them out when you're done with the clean up.

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TimFitz WRT Addict

TimFitz

Posted
Posted

Radium has a half life of 10,000 years probably more. Madam Curie is in a heavy lead & concrete coffin. All the bed side clocks & most watches had radium dials when I was a kid. I'm still alive. We used to take under our blankets and play army.

Just be careful & you'll be OK

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clockboy Distinguished Member

clockboy

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In this months BHI mag (November 2018) is an article “Radon Hazards of Luminous Timepieces” Understanding Risks From vintage watches.

Luminous timepieces really took off during the Great War, when a wristwatch with a luminous dial quickly became regarded as a necessity. The hazards of radium paint were highlighted by the story of the “Radium Girls”, luminous dial painters of the 1920s not only shaped their brushes with their lips ,but painted their teeth, lips and eyebrows with luminous radium paint, consuming significant amounts of radium. When Radium enters the body it results in cancers and many died from this.

The problem for us watch repairers is detecting if the vintage watch you are repairing/servicing has a radium dial or hands is not easy. Radio-luminescent paint ceases to glow after a few years, so lack of glow from the paint is not a reliable indication of whether it is radioactive or not. The only way to be 100% sure is to use a radiation detector.

Conclusion
Radiation and radon gas from radio - luminescent paint a potentially dangerous to watch collectors and repairers. Open storage in living or working areas that contain potential Radio-luminescent paint should be avoided. For those who regularly work on vintage watches should invest in a radon detector. If not sure use a mask when disassembling and store the dials and hands under cover and wear finger cots when handling.

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94marconi Watch Enthusiast

94marconi

Posted
Posted

Radium like asbestos needs to be treated with respect, but both seem to garner a lot of fear mongering. I dabble  in antique radio restoration and a lot of radios used asbestos cloth sheets for heat control. the subject of what to do comes up a lot.just like the subject of radioactive paint from days gone by. With asbestos as with the paint, if you leave it alone there is no risk. Only if you start cutting grinding or scraping will you release particles into the air. That is the hazard. With asbestos in radios just leave it alone. or if you feel strongly about it you can spray it with water remove it to a plastic bag seal the bag and be done with it. As clockboy states finger cots a dust mask and store in a sealed container and all is good. If you are not sure if the watch you are working on is radioactive and you do not wish to assume the risk, what little there is, while taking the proper precautions, then pass such work on to some one else. For me, i will probably never work on a radium watch. But if I do, at least I have a clear understanding of what I am up against and how to handle the situation to minimize the risk to myself and others around me. That is the beauty of forums like this with learned members, being informed goes a long way to being safe.

Thanks for posting and the heads up...

Ron 

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AndyHull Distinguished Member

AndyHull

Posted
Posted (edited)

Be aware that even if the dial no longer glows, it is still probably radioactive, since the half life of Radium is around 1600 years, and other transuranic elements are probably present with similar or longer half lives. 

The hazard is relatively low, but you should still take care. If removing old lume, wear gloves, and a mask, and keep the old lume in a paste form by using some form of barrier material, water, while it may leave marks is probably OK.

Something oil based may be better, and any solvent that evaporates rapidly may transport the particles into the air. The amount of material involved is pretty small, and the radioactivity present in a single watch dial is not a huge amount, but it should be treated with respect to avoid ingesting it.

Skin contact, while ill advised is less hazardous, if you do get it on your skin, wash it off with plenty of water and soap or hand cleaner. In this sense, it is similar to things like asbestos,  lead and mercury, all of which you are likely to encounter in the environment naturally, and all of which present a small, but not insignificant environmental hazard. 

There is an interesting article  on Wikipedia -> here <-   particularly the section on safety. 

The hazard is greater when the material is on a more industrial scale. This article might be of interest in that respect.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-34862223

In summary, treat with respect, but don't get too paranoid, just exercise suitable caution.


Slightly off topic. If you are interested in detecting radium and other radioactive particles, you can obviously buy a suitable detector, or if you like a challenge, you can build your own, using a geiger tube, or even a pin diode. Google keywords "open source geiger counter." or "pin diode radiation detector"

I have a bunch of old pin diode based dosimeters in my junk pile, which I intend to convert into counters when I get a bit of spare time. See here for more -> http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?t=3322

Edited by AndyHull
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Tmuir Distinguished Member

Tmuir

Posted
Posted

For vintage watches that the hands may have radium lume on them and they are not painted I just drop them into a small jar of acetone and let it dissolve the lume. I then remove the hands and tip the acetone (about 20mills only)into my jar of spent cleaning fluid which is left in the corner of my shed to evaporate down and then the heavier parts like turps that dont evaporate are stored in a container to go to my local council recycler that takes oil and paint thinners. The little amount of radium in it is of no risk as I don't touch that many old watches and it means I don't have to worry about dust coming up from the hands when I remove the old lume.

I do take care even with the movement and case and ensure I wash my hands after dismantling them for cleaning and usually wear finger cots too.

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