[Milsurplus] Radioactive OA2 tubes?

[mac]

Ran into a warning like that on some JAN 811A tubes a while ago.   
Something to do with the thorium in the filaments maybe?

Dennis D. W7QHO
Glendale, CA

********************

On Sep 26, 2010, at 1:22 PM, WA5CAB at cs.com wrote:

> Actually the warnings are a 60's thing.  A small percentage of the  
> gas in
> the tube is the or one of the radioactive isotopes of that gas.  I  
> never did
> understand the logic of the comment about cuts in the warning.  What  
> you
> wouldn't want to do would be to inhale right over a tube that had  
> just been
> broken.
>
> In a message dated 9/26/2010 1:48:45 PM Central Daylight Time,
> jfor at quik.com writes:
>> My guess is that all gas tubes, including Regulators, indicators,  
>> and T/R
>> Tubes, have radioactive solids or gas in them in small quantities.   
>> There
>> may well have been differences between manufacturers.
>>
>> I suspect the manual cautions were a post WW II caution, when concern
>> about radioactivity grew.
>>
>> FWIW,
>>
>> -John
>>
>
> Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
> wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
> MVPA 9480
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