# Are radium bottles safe?



## dr.v (Sep 16, 2013)

So I'm fairly new to the bottle collecting hobby. Is it safe to buy bottles that once contained radium products (and are now empty)? Radium's half life is 1600 years so I would think it would still be hanging around, no?


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## GuntherHess (Sep 16, 2013)

As far as I know none of them actually contained any Radium so yes they should be safe.
 Are there any in particular you are asking about?


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## Sir.Bottles (Sep 16, 2013)

Do you somehow have any photo of the radium bottle?


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## GuntherHess (Sep 16, 2013)

The ones that come to mind are the radium water cooler crocks.
 Also patent medicines like Radium Radia.
 None of these contained radium it was just marketing hype.
 If you want radium you can buy old watches, they used it on the dials and numbers.


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## GuntherHess (Sep 16, 2013)

here's one ... http://antiquemedicines.com/MedicineNexus/R/Radium.jpg


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## Sir.Bottles (Sep 16, 2013)

As long as it antique bottle I believe it safe.[]


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## digger dun (Sep 17, 2013)

I was digging at a local dump outside of the town of Sag Harbor, on the east end of Long Island NY that contained the factory waste of a Bulova watch factory. I hit one deposit obviously from the factory, an amorphous mass of rusted watch parts, and hundreds of glass watch faces. The thought suddenly dawned on me that I was probably exposing myself to radiation from the paints they would use to make the numbers glow in the dark. I wasn't finding much there that day anyway...


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## GuntherHess (Sep 17, 2013)

those were likely faces which failed the enameling process so they wouldn't have had radium applied yet. But no telling what you might hit there.  Would be cool to check the area with a Geiger counter.


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## digger dun (Sep 17, 2013)

With all the thorium gas light mantles dissolved into every dump any of us dig in they would all probably trip a Geiger counter.


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## GuntherHess (Sep 17, 2013)

yep, in dumps 1890s up you could find thorium from mantels. Its an alpha emitter though so wouldn't get much exposure from it unless you somehow breathed or ate a lot of it. If the dump is dusty there are other things I would worry more about breathing in.


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## dbv1919 (Sep 17, 2013)

I would strongly suggest avoiding any freshly dug Radium bottles. The chances of latent exposure is still present. We used to use radium in the early days of radiology for oncology and testing. Now lesser isotopes are used. Unless you can borrow a Geiger counter there is no way to check fresh dug bottles. For what its worth Radium is white when freshly mixed, then yellow and eventually black. If I remember correctly the half life is 1601 years.(half as strong as originally made in 1601 years) Pretty strong stuff in medical grade.  Just my two cents worth though.


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## cowseatmaize (Sep 17, 2013)

Read this, it's pretty good.
 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/08/28/radium.aspx
 I'm going to say it's fine anyway. 
 There were a lot of reports of illness during the fad years of the X-ray device but maybe 200+ X-rays a year was just too many, like the 1400 bottles of water the guy in the article reportedly drank. [8|]
 I wonder what it said on the label for dosage? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





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## cowseatmaize (Sep 17, 2013)

Then there was "The Conqueror" conspiracy. [][][][]


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## dbv1919 (Sep 17, 2013)

Eric, you would not believe some of the crazy uses for isotopes and radiologic devices we used to read about in radiology school! My parents remember trying on shoes in the shoe fluoroscope


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## cowseatmaize (Sep 17, 2013)

> Eric, you would not believe some of the crazy uses for isotopes and radiologic devices we used to read about in radiology school!


Yes I would and I'd love to have the reads. [][]


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## dbv1919 (Sep 17, 2013)

Sorry I don't have now lost over the years.


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## GuntherHess (Sep 17, 2013)




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## dr.v (Sep 17, 2013)

Yeah, I think I will pass on this. I have been offered the opportunity to buy a radithor bottle. Empty but has brown residue inside. I'm a physician so I'm familiar with the crazy things we used to do in the name of "healing" and I would rather not risk it.


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## cobaltbot (Sep 17, 2013)

At the last Baltimore club mtg someone showed off a radium cooler jug he had gotten over the summer, was a nice looking yellow glass container which could have been uranium glass.


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## Plumbata (Sep 17, 2013)

Unless you are extremely irresponsible and uneducated none of that stuff will hurt you. With home-brewed but proper precautions most radioactive materials can be handled and stored very safely. Similar to asbestos, one can handle and utilize the stuff without the slightest risk provided you don't act like an idiot when doing so. Sadly, the liberal element out there has promulgated the now-common perception that  anything labeled "radioactive" will give you cancer and that even looking at asbestos will give you mesothelioma. The damn idiots usually don't seem to realize that the floor tiles in most mid-century commercial or institutional buildings are largely constituted of asbestos, that smoke detectors contain the synthetic radioactive element Americium, or that gasoline contains plenty of benzene and other carcinogens. But we all seem to be doing OK, right? Well, without changing a thing, if one tells young dems/libs that their university halls are paved in asbestos and that their manditory smoke detectors are highly radioactive you'll have a f'ing revolution on your hands. People are silly. Go bite a bullet, play with Mercury, and handle all the depleted uranium you want and you'll be fine as long as you have some common sense.I'd snatch up that Rad-I-Thor bottle and every other piece like it. The irrationally fearful are the ones who will ultimately lose-out.


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## cowseatmaize (Sep 18, 2013)

> anything labeled "radioactive" will give you cancer.......
> that smoke detectors contain the synthetic radioactive element Americium


That's why I threw out all my smoke detectors.[]
 Since it's American, maybe I'll get new ones though.


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## cowseatmaize (Sep 18, 2013)

Hey, I wonder if you can use the stuff turn bottles purple?


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## GuntherHess (Sep 18, 2013)

Your body contains radioactive carbon 14 so you are irradiating your selves every day    You are not safe.


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## digger dun (Sep 18, 2013)

...and Obama is radiating your Nascar AR15 Fox and Friends, so watch out!


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## cowseatmaize (Sep 19, 2013)

I heard grumpy cat got a commercial deal.


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## GuntherHess (Sep 19, 2013)

> ORIGINAL:  cowseatmaize
> 
> I heard grumpy cat got a commercial deal.


 

 yes but he's not happy about it.


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