*Warnig* Radioactive Dust

[Charlie]

This brings an idea to mind. Your old TV (especially tube sets) could now be considered to pull a double-duty. You could watch them, and also could leave them on during the day to clean the air (since they attract the dust).

i try to clean mine out at least once a year with a small brush and the vacuum. After seeing how much actually accumulates every year, it makes me feel better knowing the air in the house is cleaner!

Yeah, i know, i have a deranged mind!

[Sandy G]

Guys, I 'tweren't kidding! I remember being told when I was a kid in deadly seriousness NEVER pick up the phone on a Sat. afternoon lest I get a facefull of soot where they were blowing the lines out. Never said what to do if the damn thing was ringing, guess they had a way of telling at The Phone Co. who was talking & who wasn't. -Sandy G. P. S.- In Sneedville, theTaco Bell Co. wanted to put in a restaurant, but were told "No" by the town council, as they already had ONE telephone Co.(South CEntral Bell) & they really didn;t need another one...

[Richard D]

Back in the mid 1970s I was setting up some special effects for a Campus Life Haunted House. On the site (a closed race track) there were large transformers like you would find on the top of a pole or in a substation, but they were to heavy for the forklift to move and we were told we could take them apart and remove the actual transformers and just use the cans for show with neon transformers making the sparks. After we unbolted the tops we found they were filled with some kind of dark oil. So we had no idea it was pcb or what pcb was we poured out enough of it until we could see the bolts holding the transformer in the can. We rolled up our sleeves and stuck our arms up to our shoulders in this oil with ratchets in our hands to unbolt the transformer. Needless to say the 3 of us doing this were pretty much covered with this oil for about three days while we lifted out the guts with the forklift. I don't want to say what happened to the dozens of gallons of this stuff but none of us have grown third arms or any other abnormalities. I don't think. I don'think.

[Charlie]

We had some old transformers on a ship a few years back that we were unable to get rid of because of the cost involved. There were 3 of them, each being about 6 feet tall. They simply remained towed up in the focsle till we got rid of the ship. Supposedly was extremely costly to dispose of due to the stuff inside them. i guess someone over in India had to deal with it... that's where the ship went for scrap.

[captainmoody]

ARRR, For those of you landlubbers that's the crews quarters in the forward section of the ship dontcha know!
But me pirate ship has a "skeleton" crew that doesn't need much space. So I, The good Captain have filled the rooms with plundered televisions!!

[kby]

Originally posted by Sandy G
Don't eat the dust in the back of an old radio or TV & youshould have practically nothing to worry ABOUT.-SANDY g.

I'd also try to avoid breathing large quantities. Stuff lodged in the lungs can be pretty ugly as well. I suppose if it was from a heavy smoker's house it could be radioactive in a sense--polonium contamination in the soil is known to be absorbed rather well by tobacco plants...just one of the other hazards of smoking--and, it's an alpha emitter, which means it doesn't do much unless it's close range, then it can be really nasty (e.g., inhaled into the lungs). But this isn't what I was really thinking about above.-kby

Hell, Firestone (and others) used to market spark plugs made with Polonium tips!!!! Can you imagine? Woof!!!

Anthony

[kby]

Originally posted by heathkit tv
Hell, Firestone (and others) used to market spark plugs made with Polonium tips!!!! Can you imagine? Woof!!!

Anthony

Weird...what was the selling point (and were they really polonium?). It'd be pretty harmless in the engine, but of course I'd be worried about what comes out of the tailpipe. But I can't think of a reason why you'd want to use it isn't that easy to come by the stuff in quantities I'd think would be reasonable for any manufacturing process.-kby

These plugs were sold mostly in the 40's and 50's when the US was on a big time Atomic everything kick. I heard that in some cities children received radiation treatments to ward off childhood diseases!! This seems to have been largely forgotten. There was a time when many shoe stores had X-Ray machines so you could check the fit of your shoes. Scary stuff.

Link #1

Link #2

Anthony

[kby]

Originally posted by heathkit tv
These plugs were sold mostly in the 40's and 50's when the US was on a big time Atomic everything kick. I heard that in some cities children received radiation treatments to ward off childhood diseases!! This seems to have been largely forgotten. There was a time when many shoe stores had X-Ray machines so you could check the fit of your shoes. Scary stuff.

Link #1

Link #2

Anthony

Thanks for the links. I'd never seen the plugs before. I remember readinjg about the X-Ray machines in the stores; may have read about the radiation treatments.-kby