Hidden radioactive objects all around us...

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Hidden radioactive objects all around us...

 

 

 

Most of us try to avoid radiation, but not Andrew Walker, who collects

radioactive objects.

 

 

The surprising part?

These items can be found in antiques shops, parking lots and buildings

everywhere.

   

It began with an online video. Andrew Walker had watched as a collector of

radioactive objects showed off the items he had procured over the years,

such as antiques containing uranium.

 

Walker thought that looking for such pieces ‘in the wild’ might make an

interesting and unusual hobby – so he bought himself a Geiger counter.

 

He quickly realised, as scientists will tell you, that radioactivity is

everywhere. The first elevated reading he got was in the parking area at a

Mexican fast-food restaurant in Idaho.

“I noticed that when we pulled in there, my Geiger counter was going off,”

he recalls.

Something nearby was flinging out the tiny subatomic particles that make up

radiation in slightly higher quantities than might be expected – and though

he couldn’t figure out what it was, Walker was suddenly aware of this

otherwise invisible activity.

 

After that, he began looking for other intriguing examples.

His pursuit of radioactive objects is still a hobby.

By day, Walker is a cinema projectionist and a film-maker, not a scientist.

But he enjoys sharing some of his finds on Twitter and Instagram, where he

can discuss them with others who are similarly curious.

 

Andrew Walker has visited many radiation hotspots on his travels

 

Hobbyist Andrew Walker has visited old uranium mines and many other

radiation hotspots on his travels...

Radioactivity is something we live with constantly – it’s always there in

relatively small amounts.

Around the world, naturally occurring, higher-than-average levels of

radioactivity are found in various types of beaches and soils, among other

places.

Meanwhile, most concrete is radioactive, though levels obviously vary. In

the US, it is possible to get your home tested for radon gas – which is

produced slowly over time by radioactive construction materials. Even the

human body is slightly radioactive because we contain elements like

potassium-40, which decay.

 

Walker lives in Bozeman, Montana. He later discovered a curious historical

fact: slag containing small amounts of uranium and radium was used in the

past for concrete used in construction in his neighbouring state of Idaho.

He wonders whether this led to his readings outside the Mexican restaurant.

 

Walker likes to plan trips to local areas where he thinks he might find

interesting material. If he does, he then documents his discoveries. There

are plenty of old uranium mines (and now deserted uranium mining towns) in

the US and Walker has visited some of these on his travels.

 

    At every antique shop I have ever gone to so far, I have always been

able to find something radioactive – Andrew Walker

 

He also began frequenting antique malls. “At every antique shop I have ever

gone to so far, I have always been able to find something radioactive,” he

says.

 

These items include “Vaseline” glassware, which contains uranium and is a

striking yellow-green in colour.

But he’s also found orange-red plates and bowls that were coloured with a

uranium-based dye and which often produce even stronger readings.

The US government guidelines advise against using such crockery for food or

drink, though the health risk of simply owning these items is negligible.

 

This yellow-green ‘Vaseline’ glassware is radioactive

 

Particularly popular from the 1880s to 1920s, this yellow-green ‘Vaseline’

glassware is radioactive

Then there are watch and clock faces with glow-in-the-dark paint that

contains radium.

 

Such objects are relatively safe as long as they are not taken apart, but

the women who made them in factories would often hold their paint brushes

using their lips.

This caused them to ingest small amounts of the radium paint.

 

As a result, many developed serious illnesses including bone cancer in their

jaws.

 

This is why Walker tries not to put himself at any unnecessary risk.

Regarding his mildly radioactive crockery, he says, “If they weren’t

radioactive I’d probably have them out, but they’re tucked away.”

 

Still, his new hobby has intrigued friends and family. “They ask why am I

going to these places and exploring this stuff,” he explains with a laugh.

“It’s something I’m interested in; it’s just fascinating.”

 

Objects in many antique shops emit higher than normal levels of radiation

 

Objects that emit higher than normal levels of radiation lurk everywhere,

including many antiques shops

 

He’s even found a few local landmarks, including public buildings like train

stations, where the tiles produce slightly elevated levels of radioactivity

– again, presumably a result of having been made with particular dyes or

glazes.

 

What is radiation?

 

Radiation is essentially energy.

The radiation detected by Geiger counters concerns energy released by

decaying atoms – atoms that are constantly expelling a barrage of tiny

particles.

 

Some of this radiation can dislodge electrons from other atoms to create

charged particles – this is known as ‘ionising radiation’. Three key forms

of ionising radiation, from largest to smallest, are:

 

Alpha – A bundle of two protons and two neutrons

 

Beta – An electron, or positron, which is like a positively charged electron

 

Gamma – Tiny photons, which at different wavelengths also make up visible

light

 

Radioactive elements that decay producing these forms of radiation include

uranium and radium.

 

Alpha particles can be stopped with a sheet of paper, or the outer layer of

human skin.

 

But gamma rays can penetrate much further and are often only blocked by very

dense materials such as lead.

 

Geiger counters are easy to make – so much so, in fact, that some hobbyists

assemble their own and experiment with finding sources of radioactivity with

which to test them.

 

Walker himself bought one for $1,300 (£930), a RadEye meter that detects

alpha, beta and gamma radiation.

 

Radiochemist Nick Evans at Nottingham Trent University points out that

radioactivity can be measured in a variety of different ways.

 

One approach is to observe the rate of nuclei decaying over time; the

international unit used for this is the Becquerel.

 

But people may be more familiar with measurements in Sieverts (or indeed

Microsieverts or Millisieverts).

This is the effective dose of the radiation and the unit Walker uses.

However, Evans says that the standard way of taking these readings is

actually to hold the Geiger counter one metre away from the source so that

objects’ radioactivity can be compared accurately.

 

High energy

 

The fascinating thing about Walker’s expeditions is the ease with which he

has found so many examples.

 

Evans says this is partly a legacy of industries that treated radioactivity

as a potential marketing ploy in the decades following its discovery in the

late 19th Century.

 

It was quickly capitalised on as a potential selling point for weird and

wonderful new products.

 

Many hobbyists make their own Geiger counters

 

Walker is far from the only radioactive object collector, and many hobbyists

make their own Geiger counters...

 

“It was very, very different to anything else,” says Evans.

 

“It was sort of mystical and people obviously wanted to try all sorts of

things with it, play with it, if you like.”

 

Some of the things manufacturers came up with are mind-boggling today.

 

Take radioactive suppositories, for example, a ‘treatment’ with no actual

grounding in medical science. Surely there are safer ways to restore “your

normal manly vigour”.

 

But that wasn’t the only health-related product seeking to help patients to

a dose of decaying atoms.

 

There was also radioactive toothpaste and even condoms.

 

“I’ve no idea what the thinking behind those was,” says Evans of the latter.

 

 “I have a tin of them – not that I use them, I hasten to add.”

 

In Bad Gastein, Austria, spa-goers breathe in radon gas to increase wellness

 

The notion that increased doses of radioactivity could somehow be good for

you is still with us today.

 

There is a spa in the Austrian Alps called Bad Gastein where people can

visit the humid tunnels of a former gold mine and sweat away their ailments

– while breathing radon gas.

Many scientists have long bemoaned the public’s instinctive distrust of

anything to do with radiation. Anxiety associated with it is exaggerated,

argue some.

 

Indeed, dangers like pollution don’t spark the same sense of trepidation and

yet pollution kills millions of people every year.

 

One study found that, in stark contrast, only 190 people died between 1980

and 2013 as a direct result of overexposure.

 

Walker says that many fears increasingly seem “irrational” to him thanks to

his explorations. On the other hand, of course, his treks and antique shop

visits really just show off how ubiquitous radioactivity really is.

 

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180405-why-people-collect-radioactive-
objects