Warbird Information Exchange

http://atomicinsights.com/wp-content/up ... ixPage.pdf

Based upon this, the fears of radiation exposure from radium instrument dials seem exaggerated.

I have to agree with BDK. If you're afraid of getting cancer from looking at radium dials, then you better not eat bananas! They contain potassium, which includes the radioactive isotope of potassium. When I did radiation training to work at a national lab, a statement was made in the training material that if you eat a tablespoon of peanut butter, you increase your chances of getting cancer by one in a million.

I often wondered if there was any correlation between flight crew sitting behind instruments with radium dials and an increase in cancer in that sector of the population. I would be interesting to see any study along those lines.

Bill K

Many years ago the Seattle Fire Dept. paid an inspection visit to the newly opened Great Gallery @ MoF. The fire inspectors went buggy nuts over the stored radium painted instruments in the basement almost demanding they immediately be launched to outer space. They also freaked out over the readings their TIMEX instrumentation got off of a very old JT8D-1 that had lived out its life as an XRay trainer at some A&P school. To this day they refuse to allow the Museum to display a BOMARC IM-99 that's been laying in the grass @ the restoration facility for years because it used slightly radioactive skins and while it's been pointed out that there are several on display in other museums and no one has been seen to lick one or rub their baby on them, they still refuse.
The MoF also had a real battle on it's hands over the humidity levels that were too low per SFD demands and were destroying archival materials in the library, I believe they won that battle.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

you will get more radiation exposure from tv or microwave oven exposure than from old aviation instruments. Doolittle for example, sat behind radium dialed instruments for decades & lived into his 90's.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

there was a recent radioactive leak at the perry nuclear power plant in western ohio on lake erie where tritium was detected near a monitoring station near an auxiliary building where the leak occurred. tritium is a weak isotope occurring naturally in nuclear plant operations. it can be found in self luminescent items like wrist watches & aircraft dials in the 21st century. so much for radium.... this is the 21st century!! hack watches during ww2 were radium dialed as well. a lot of the big radium freak out of ww 2 radium dialed instruments stems from the people who hand painted dialed instrument settings / measurement readings on the face dials. these employees would orally lick paint brushes to keep a fine tip for precision painting of numerals, settings, etc. naturally by ingesting the radioactive paint via tongue to brush would cause radiation poisoning. this ww2 radium spook is nothing but a witch hunt, other wise countless museums from the Smithsonian air & space museum usaf museum would all be guilty, & these are govt entities.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!