[Tig] Polonium

[Rob Lingelbach]

> ..but it showed things like a cigarette
> having more radioactivity than the antistatic chip. Living in  
> Denver was
> also more radioactive as was a housebrick.  They still make those
> brushes if you want to buy a couple of hundred of them.
> Here is their home page for anyone interested.
> http://www.nrdstaticcontrol.com

but as I think Sam Alexander noted,  the Po210 in the StaticMaster  
brushes
appeared not to be in any ceramic casing, but rather sprayed onto a  
surface
which was then "sealed" with something, which could have been a ceramic
coating, but did look more like lacquer to me.   anyway I think we  
can agree
that it would take a lot of work to make something dangerous out of  
the brush,
though there are warnings on the brush and package about the  
radioactivity
of the active ingredient.

Perhaps the StaticMaster brushes have changed their design and now don't
use a lacquer, but a completely sealed cartridge.

regarding cigarettes, all the more reason etc....   housebricks:  
hmmmm, and then
there's radon.

Several years ago an exhaustive study was made by a researcher with  
results
published in journals and serialized in The New Yorker, about the  
incidence of
leukemia and rate of same for people who live under or close to high  
voltage
transmission lines.   The statistics were remarkable, with much  
higher incidences
of the disease, especially among children, who lived close to hv  
power transmission
lines.   However, this kind of information doesn't please the power  
companies very
much, who have great influence over the government and lobbying  
organizations
1000 times more powerful than scientists, which translates to money,  
so the poor
people living near powerlines are powerless in regards to the health  
problems.

So if a housebrick is proven to cause health problems, I wouldn't be  
at all surprised
to hear that the information is suppressed by the infinitely powerful  
construction
industry :/       ...anyway I know this wasn't really your point Graham.

Rob
http://www.colorist.org/robhome.html