Is there radiation danger from tritium might sights?

[Alan Fud]

This has been discussed a few times in the past and if I remember correctly, the conclusion was that there was very little danger of being harmed by radioactivity. However, while looking for something else, I came across this site and read the following ...

... Tritium (heavy hydrogen with two neutrons) is radioactive, emitting beta particles with a low energy of 18 keV, and having a 12 year half life. Placing place one of the sights on a pancake GM detector. The readings went from 55 CPM background to about 210 CM. Then removing the actual glass tube (with the tritium and phosphors) from the plastic holder, and the reading jumped to about 690 CPM. I suspect that the betas are hitting the glass, and creating x-rays, with a peak energy of 18 keV. The plastic absorbs most, but not all, of them.

... Can anyome explain what these numbers mean?

 

[Anpwhotep]

That means that the energy from the tritium compares to that of sunlight in Arizona, or a little higher than the background count you'd get from spending time in the capitol building in Denver or on the training range at Kirtland AFB.

I personally wouldn't worry about it, but then again, I've been accused of having a casual attitude regarding radiation. I used to carry thorium sources around in my pockets when I was teaching nuclear decontamination, 20 years ago.

The only real concern I ever had about tritium is if the capsule breaks. Tritium is taken up by the body even faster than mono-h. And when that happens, you have the beta emitter inside your body, rather than outside, where your epidermis can absorb the radiation without risking anything worse than a sunburn. But if the capsule is inside a good solid carrier, like the tritium sights I've seen, the odds of it breaking are slightly less than the odds of winning the Irish Sweepstakes.

 

[Telperion]

electron volt (eV) = amount of energy needed to move an electron across a potential difference of 1 volt. 18 keV sounds pretty weak to me. Beta emitters and alpha emitters are usually in the MeV range.

CPM = counts per minute on a geiger counter

 

[The_Antibubba]

Used correctly, no

Now if a rumor were to hit the Internet that breaking open the capsules and sniffing the tritium would get you really, really high, THAT might cause a problem.

 

[Jay Kominek]

... Can anyome explain what these numbers mean?

"Don't eat the sights"

 

[Sisco]

From Trijicons website:

"According to documentation by health physicists in statements on file at the US NRC, it would take the simultaneous rupture of 10,000 of these small glass capsules in a small room 10 foot by 10 foot to potentially constitute a radiation health hazard. For this reason, customers need not be concerned about the potential risk of the night sight system. Furthermore, our front sight is 0.018 curies and the two rear sight dots are 0.018 curies each. A complete weapon system is 0.054 curies. This is less than many tritium watches, which have up to 0.200 curies or roughly four times as much radioactivity. In addition, the weapon is not as close to the body, and in less constant use than a watch."

 

[45R]

You'll get more radiation sitting in front of your PC screeen for 8 hours reading THR than you will the NS...

 

[TallPine]

Only if you are looking at them from the wrong direction ....

 

[Andrew Rothman]

I knew THR was going to be the death of me.

 

[HankB]

Go back and reread the source. The guy wasn't writing about pistol sights, he was writing about things like keychains and signs that have up to "several" curies of tritium.

He also removed a glass tube containing the tritium from "a plastic holder" before measuring it . . . now, just how many night sights have "plastic" holders?

The radiation from a tritium-filled night sight will be infinitesimal, especially when it's embedded in a metal sight blade.

If you're worried about the increases in CPM - counts per minute - he measured, look a little higher up on his page, where he measured the radioactivity of potassium chloride salt substitute.

 

[mvpel]

Good resource for Radiation info

The Uranium Information Centre in Australia maintains the "Radiation and Life" page that contains a lot of good information about the real-life aspects of radiation.

 

[clubsoda22]

all that hoppes #9 you inhale cleaning your guns will give you cancer faster than your night sights.

 

[Treylis]

Basically, no.

People are overly freaked out about radiation in general due to all the screaming fact-free environmental reports that can be found everywhere. I wouldn't give it a thought, although, yes, I would recommend that you not eat the sights. ;-)

 

[Zach S]

I dont think so. Theres a warning on any type of laser (laser pointer, laser sight, laser level, laser blah blah blah) about it causing cancer somehow, do you worry about it? In the day and age of everything having a warning label (whe dries thier hair in the bathtub?) if there was any real danger I'd imagine they'd have a radiation warning label.

I'd imagine my microwave poses more of a radiation danger than night sights.

 

[Frohickey]

There is no radiation danger from tritium night sights.

The public, and the science-ignorant journalists, then to overhype things with buzzwords. Its made worse because these science-ignorant journalists tend to go to science experts, who, most of the time, do not know how to properly explain things to a lay-person, let alone an idiot. The science experts usually lecture to grad students.

So, you get things like blah..blah..radiation...blah...blah. And you have the journalists go and key on the buzzwords and make it bigger than it is.

 

[HankB]

Theres a warning on any type of laser (laser pointer, laser sight, laser level, laser blah blah blah) about it causing cancer somehow,

No, there isn't - not on the types of laser mentioned. (pointers, levels, sights, etc.)

Lasers operating in the visible and IR parts of the spectrum, depending on power output and wavelength, may pose any number of hazards related to their laser emissions, but cancer isn't among them.

Now, certain dye lasers may use dyes that are carcinogenic, and some short wavelength lasers (e.g., KrF excimer) use wavelengths that may be implicated in things like cataracts and skin cancer, but the average person is very unlikely to encounter these specific types of laser.

Lasers are completely different from things like tritium sources which are beta emitters, or things like the americium-241 sources in smoke detectors, which are alpha emitters.

 

[Orion]

You mean I've been wearing a lead thong for no reason all this time?

 

[mlspmk]

I work on a Radiological Emergency Response Team - don't loose sleep over the tritium. Besides - do you know what the recommended treatment for adults is? Drink lots of beer!! Seriously - the best way to remove it is to flush the body of fluids. People have gotten MUCH higher uptakes than what you have in thiose sights and were not in any real danger. There is uncertainty about minimal doses and the effect on the body, but none of us lives in a completely protected environment - we are exposed to risk every day - of much higher magnitudes than what these sights would produce.