[Milsurplus] Milsurplus Radiation

[Scott Johnson]

These are all alpha emitters- not dangerous unless you snort or swallow 
the paint. They can't even penetrate the glass.   I may be wrong, but I 
believe most of the radioactive paint was discontinued early in WWII, 
R-390 meters that I have seen are simply phosphorescent, with out the 
isotope to excite it.  They just use a phosphor with an exceptionally 
long persistance.  Later on tritium gas was used in the lensatic 
compasses and GI watches and sights in a closed cell with phosphor on 
the surface to cause a glow.  The tritium is safer than the solid 
isotopes, since it just disperses if the little ampule is broken.

Scott

windy10605 at juno.com wrote:
> Has anyone ever measured the radiation levels from sources ....like R390
> meters, military compasses, altimeters, scopes, etc ? and compared that
> against what is really acceptable or not ?
>
> I'd like to see some hard data and facts.
>
> 73 Kees K5BCQ
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