Ball Engineer Master II Ducks Unlimited Watch Discussions | Drop

Aug 3, 2019

I'm still not sure how safe it is... If Tritium is passed through a glass it emits X-rays that have a very short length wave so even tho its not that strong is still carry the power to pass through skin ... and usually Tritium emits Beta rays that doesn't really carry the power to go through skin ... so Im not sure... maybe someone can clear it out ?

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Aug 4, 2019

Albert.ATritium is an unstable (radioactive) form of hydrogen; tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years and its decay results in the release of a beta particle (an electron in this case). In the case of a Ball watches, tritium gas is sealed inside tiny glass tubes. An individual tube is attached to each of the illuminated design elements (hand, hour markings, ...). The inside of each tube is coated with a luminescent compound. When a tritium atom decays, the beta particle collides with the luminescent coating on the inside of the tube and the energy of the beta particle is converted to light. Different coatings result in light emission of different wavelengths, resulting in different colors being possible. Hence, the energized beta particle never leaves the tube and there is no release of energized beta particles by the watch. In any event, tritium beta particles are of such low energy they cannot be reliably detected by hand-held Geiger counters. So, to make a long story short, the tritium used in Ball Watches is very safe.

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mrfuriouser

170

Aug 4, 2019

Albert.AAbsolutely ZERO radiation exits the watches. My nuclear radiation detector is centered here amongst my 4 Ball watches. The radiation emission readings did not change from normal readings outside after being placed in close proximity to the 4 watches. Please, there is no radiation worry in glass-encased tritium. It has been proven safe for decades.

Aug 4, 2019

mrfuriouseryour tool for the job is just a toy that won't detect anything... a prob should have a clear sight to the material you are measuring not talking about the huge metal casing of the watch, i doubt it goes through the watch casing but it definitely leaks through the front of the watch ...

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Aug 4, 2019

AUTigerFanyou are simply wrong ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y3Hu6hEwow

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mrfuriouser

170

Aug 4, 2019

Albert.AWrong. This is HAZMAT approved and used by we first responders all over America, and it has passed approval testing. We use them at work. You are an anti-nuclear schill attempting to spread fear. Grow up. We are constantly surrounded by radiation in our daily lives, and none of it is enough to cause harm. If YOU are afraid, YOU don't have to buy it. But don't falsely spread fear for no reason. That is a cowards move. You should have simply said thanks.

Aug 4, 2019

mrfuriouserI don't know why you are so furious... but this plastic toy isnt a proper tool to detect/measure radiation not talking about your way of measurement ...

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mrfuriouser

170

Aug 4, 2019

Albert.AIt detects any level of radiation that could actually be harmful to a human. Calling it a "toy" doesn't change the facts. BTW- that video you posted disproves the idea that tritium is dangerous in these applications during the very first paragraph spoken, by the tester, on camera. So, thank you, I think. Why am I so furious? Because EVERY SINGLE TIME a tritium watch appears here, someone like you comments about radioactive danger contained within. I'm done with the misinformation. UNLESS YOU OPEN AND INGEST IT, you will be fine. FMD.

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Aug 4, 2019

mrfuriouserI wish i could find the study and relate you to it, but there is some interesting information about how low energy emitted radiation that is being emitted in the same place over a long period of time is harmful . there is a big misunderstanding about that low level energy radiation is harmless but its not the case. And i'll be honest I'm finding it very hard to believe that this small thing can be very sensitive and measure/detect a proper radiation, the tools that measure Gamma/Beta/Alpha/X-Ray radiation they are all very very expensive tools ... And am i not familiar with a tool that can measure all types radiation, in fact each tool that measure Gamma/Beta/Alpha/X-rays is doing it very different methods per each radiation type, one method cannot be used to measure all of those types radiations maybe I'm wrong ? please relate me the full name of this device i want to read about it and please watch the whole video, at some point he changes the prob. (https://youtu.be/4Y3Hu6hEwow?t=475) don't forget he is measuring 1 vial. how many do you have in the watch ?

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Aug 4, 2019

Albert.AI appreciate the link. So, how am I wrong?

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Aug 4, 2019

AUTigerFanyou can detect tritium with hand-held Geiger counters, beta rays when they pass glass turn into x rays, no ?

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Aug 4, 2019

Albert.AFor more than 20 years I have been authorized by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (through my employers) to use radioisotopes, including tritium, for biomedical research purposes. Standard operating procedures approved by the US NRC do not permit tritium detection using a hand-held geiger counter (with either a beta probe or a gamma probe). So, every time I have used a tritium-containing compound, I have had to test for inadvertent contamination of my workspace by wiping down my workspace and floors with filter paper and testing for tritium contamination of the filter paper by liquid scintillation counting. If contamination is detected, I have to clean the contaminated space and retest for contamination using fresh filter paper and liquid scintillation counting. All test results (positive and negative) have to be recorded; they are audited annually by my employers' radiation safety officer. To reiterate, under no circumstances have I been permitted to use a hand-held geiger counter with a beta probe or gamma probe to test for workplace contamination with tritium. In one instance, failure to adhere to this rule had serious consequences. The laboratory next to mine had a glass vial containing radioactive liquid fall out of a freezer and shatter on the floor, dispersing liquid over a 30 ft2 radius. The investigator (not one of my trainees) saw the radioactive label on the vial and used a hand-held geiger counter with both beta and gamma probes to "conclude" that the radioisotope in the vial had decayed to the point of being undetectable. So, the investigator wiped down the area with paper towels and declared the area cleared of any hazard. Only several hours later did the investigator consider the possibility that the glass vial might have contained tritium. Wipe testing determined that an entire corridor and the shoes of several investigators were contaminated with tritium. We ended up having to remove 200 ft2 of ceramic floor tile (from the corridor - lots of fun involving 50 pound blocks of dry ice) and 30 ft2 of carpet (from the department head's office). About a dozen of us had to permanently surrender our shoes. That was a tough way to reaffirm that you can't detect the low-energy beta particles released by tritium using a hand-held geiger counter.

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Aug 4, 2019

Albert.ABy the way, just to address your specific comment, in my experience tritium beta particles do not yield a meaningful amount of x-rays when they hit glass. I know this because I have used tritium to measure growth (DNA synthesis) of living cells grown on standard glass microscope slides. To detect tritium incorporation into the DNA, I dip the slides (cells and all) into liquid photographic emulsion, coating both sides of the slide. I then store the slides (typically 10-20) in a light-tight microscope slide box for several days to allow for the tritium incorporated in the DNA to expose the photographic emulsion. I process the slides by dipping them into standard photographic developer and fixer. I use standard light microscopy to determine the fraction of total cells that undergo DNA synthesis. To make a long story short, if tritium beta particles yielded a meaningful amount of x-rays when they hit glass, these experiments would simply not work, as the x-rays from one slide would expose the emulsion of multiple adjacent slides, yielding spurious results. Attached is a figure from one of my publications (Journal of Virology, volume 67, issue 7, pages 3720-29) that illustrates one of these experiments.

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