Tritium is a Hydrogen Isotope with two extra neutrons in addition to the single proton "regular Hydrogen" usualy posesses.
Since the arrangment is not stable, it decays, and re-arranges itself into Helium, releasing an electron, (and an anti-neutrino, which for all intents and purposes is almost utterly "nothing" billions of neutrinos fly through the earth, space, and your body every second, touching nothing...) An electron released in radioactive decay is known as a Beta particle. Loosely speaking, this is the "weakest" form of radiation. A beta-electron is different than "electricity". For one thing it's on it's solo, flying through space, and has a much, much, higher velocity/energy than it's brothers running through batteries and wires, but it's still blocked by most anything, skin, cloth, paper, or even just a few inches of air...
The electrons given off by the tritium's decay strike phosphors coating the inside of the night sight's glass capsule which collect the electron, raising their energy state, and then re-emit the energy as light. It's actualy kind of like a single colored phosphor dot on a TV tube screen, but lit by an electron from radioactive decay instead of the electron gun.
You can get "tritium burns" but it takes large amounts, and lots of exposure at least as compared to what's in a night sight capsule (if you broke it open, the glass capsule and phosphors contain the beta particles almost completely), and the tritium has to be bound up in something solid or liquid that you can ingest or rub on your skin for prolonged contact, and not in pure gaseous form.
As radioactive stuff goes, it's very safe. It's just regulated so tightly because Uncle Sam never gives up control willingly once he's got it. You can buy tritium keychains in Europe and the UK for a few bucks, and they're 20 times the size of night sight capsules. They're sort of sold as a glow-stick that lasts 20 years...
Since the arrangment is not stable, it decays, and re-arranges itself into Helium, releasing an electron, (and an anti-neutrino, which for all intents and purposes is almost utterly "nothing" billions of neutrinos fly through the earth, space, and your body every second, touching nothing...) An electron released in radioactive decay is known as a Beta particle. Loosely speaking, this is the "weakest" form of radiation. A beta-electron is different than "electricity". For one thing it's on it's solo, flying through space, and has a much, much, higher velocity/energy than it's brothers running through batteries and wires, but it's still blocked by most anything, skin, cloth, paper, or even just a few inches of air...
The electrons given off by the tritium's decay strike phosphors coating the inside of the night sight's glass capsule which collect the electron, raising their energy state, and then re-emit the energy as light. It's actualy kind of like a single colored phosphor dot on a TV tube screen, but lit by an electron from radioactive decay instead of the electron gun.
You can get "tritium burns" but it takes large amounts, and lots of exposure at least as compared to what's in a night sight capsule (if you broke it open, the glass capsule and phosphors contain the beta particles almost completely), and the tritium has to be bound up in something solid or liquid that you can ingest or rub on your skin for prolonged contact, and not in pure gaseous form.
As radioactive stuff goes, it's very safe. It's just regulated so tightly because Uncle Sam never gives up control willingly once he's got it. You can buy tritium keychains in Europe and the UK for a few bucks, and they're 20 times the size of night sight capsules. They're sort of sold as a glow-stick that lasts 20 years...