[meteorite-list] TRINITITE "Who is Dr. LaPaz"

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:20:31 -0600
Message-ID: <11CA40749DFA4F32903BA1E6E9C6784E_at_ATARIENGINE2>

Shawn, James, List,

While it is radiologically safe to possess and
display trinitite after this interval, handling
it could conceivably be unwise, depending
on the nature of the sample, the degree of
vitrification and the physical integrity of the
sample. The danger is that of a small particle
(even very small) getting detached and ending
up in your body, breathed in, or eaten, or...
One would not want to run any risk of acquiring
even a small amount of an alpha emitter than
might become incorporated in your tissues.
A low risk, possibly, but a low risk of a high
risk event.

I have a quantity of trinitite that I personally
collected in 1949. At that time, it was capable
of producing a good "buzz" in a primitive tube
circuit Geiger-Mueller counter. In the late 1950's,
it made only a mild buzz, and by the 1960's, no
buzz. It was not as active as other samples I had,
however, like a good lump of pitchblende, which
was always noisier than the trinitite. By contrast,
by the early Sixties, when the trinitite wouldn't
raise a blip over background, the pitchblende
activity was unchanged (as it will be for the next
billion years or so).

Nevertheless, I put the trinitite in a sealed but
see-through container at that time (1960's) and
there it stays. I did get rid of my radium samples,
though, in an interval of sanity. The pitchblende
and other ores are all in sealed jars. As for these
exposures, anyone who was a child in the period
of open-air nuclear bomb testing was exposed to
a far greater hazard than that of owning (or handling)
a piece of trinitite.

See this testing:
http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/dental/articles/babytooth.html
and these results:
http://www.physorg.com/news175368568.html

Paradoxically, I handled the trinitite freely back
when it was, well, a little "warm" and put it safely
away about the time it had "cooled off." It's funny
the way human logic works.

The nothing-ever-happened-to-me argument is not
a valid one in evaluating risks. When I was a school
boy, I used to run into the show store at every chance
and stick my feet into the fluoroscope they used to
check the "fit" of a shoe, just so I could look at my
skeletal toe bones wiggling. A public X-ray machine
in a shoe store was a colossally stupid thing to have,
but X-raying your feet as often as you could is pretty
dumb, too. The fact that I seem to have had no harm
as a result doesn't mean it was a harmless thing to do,
but only that I was (am?) a lucky person.

Trinitite is almost unique (and we hope it stays that
way) since a combat nuclear weapon would never be
(has never been) detonated at ground level. By all
means, hold the trinitite in your open palm, then take
a photo of it resting there, then put the trinitite away
in a nice display box. Write on the back of the photo,
"Here's me holding a piece of one of the paving bricks
from downtown Hell."


Sterling K. Webb
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Balister" <balisterjames at att.net>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 1:31 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] "Who is Dr. LaPaz"


I have been touching my trinitite since 1961 and I still have all my
hair!



----- Original Message ----
> From: "photophlow at yahoo.com" <photophlow at yahoo.com>
> To: James Balister <balisterjames at att.net>
> Sent: Sat, February 27, 2010 1:29:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] "Who is Dr. LaPaz"
>
> Note: Forwarded message is attached.

So i shouldnt touch it with my
> bare hands? Its a small piece.... The seller said i would be ok if i
> didnt eat
> it. I am to young to die lol.

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Received on Sat 27 Feb 2010 04:20:31 AM PST