Is tritium scopes hazardous for humans? If anyone knows, please, help
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abrahamsmith
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Well, my watch, and many others, have tritium dials... After the Curium dials of the 50's, I doubt they'd use dangerous materials in watches nowadays.
more scientifically:
For those of you without physics/chemistry backgrounds, tritium is hydrogen with two neutrons. (like deuterium, but with one more neutron) So, in the nucleus, it has 1 proton and 2 neutrons, and around that there is one electron. In case you're wondering, its radioactive halflife is 12.3 years.
I think it's decay process is the following:
One of the neutrons kick out an electron and becomes a neutron, thus, we have Helium 3, plus some extra energy.
i.e.: H^3 --> He^3 + gamma
If you have two of them, it goes:
2H^3 --> He^3 + neutron + gamma
I rather doubt it is dangerous in the amounts used. The only type of radiation given off is light (gamma), and since we can see it, a significant portion of that energy is in the visible range. Thus, I'd conjecture that the radiation in dangerous wavelengths is less than we get from other sources (the sun, our computer monitors, etc..)
I might have some technical flaws in the above, but I'll take faith in the conclusion.
relax...
more scientifically:
For those of you without physics/chemistry backgrounds, tritium is hydrogen with two neutrons. (like deuterium, but with one more neutron) So, in the nucleus, it has 1 proton and 2 neutrons, and around that there is one electron. In case you're wondering, its radioactive halflife is 12.3 years.
I think it's decay process is the following:
One of the neutrons kick out an electron and becomes a neutron, thus, we have Helium 3, plus some extra energy.
i.e.: H^3 --> He^3 + gamma
If you have two of them, it goes:
2H^3 --> He^3 + neutron + gamma
I rather doubt it is dangerous in the amounts used. The only type of radiation given off is light (gamma), and since we can see it, a significant portion of that energy is in the visible range. Thus, I'd conjecture that the radiation in dangerous wavelengths is less than we get from other sources (the sun, our computer monitors, etc..)
I might have some technical flaws in the above, but I'll take faith in the conclusion.
relax...
There was some good discussion on tritium in this Gear and Accessories thread: http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50359
abrahamsmith - there are a few technical flaws in your explanation, but no matter because your conclusion that it is not dangerous is absolutely correct.
abrahamsmith - there are a few technical flaws in your explanation, but no matter because your conclusion that it is not dangerous is absolutely correct.
Absolutely safe
Tritium could be dangerous in large doses, but the amount used in the sights is not enought to do any damage. When you get an X-ray they shoot more radiation than that on you on purpose. And like it was said, you get more radiation in daily life. Also, going up in an airplane gets you a lot of radiation, because the atmosphere isn't shielding you as much. But the sights on your gun are perfectly safe.
Tritium could be dangerous in large doses, but the amount used in the sights is not enought to do any damage. When you get an X-ray they shoot more radiation than that on you on purpose. And like it was said, you get more radiation in daily life. Also, going up in an airplane gets you a lot of radiation, because the atmosphere isn't shielding you as much. But the sights on your gun are perfectly safe.
abrahamsmith,
Tritium is actually alfa emitter, not gamma.
While alfa radiation is ionising, the penetration of it is VERY low. Alfa particles are stopped by a sheet of paper.
Thay have so little energy, that they can not be detected by standart Geiger counter. They are only detectable by scintilation countung, which is acually the basic principle of tritiun sights. You have very small amount of tritium sealed in the capluse with some scintilation agent. Particles that hit the scintilator cause loss of electron on its outer shell. The atom changes its anergy state, releasing enough energy to be seen as cisible light (this is over simplification, but it describes the basic principle).
As far a ganger to health, unless you have direct exposure to large quantity of tritium (>50 KBq), nothing will hapen. The danger of tritium is its long halve life. If you ingest it, exposed tissues will recieve low dose of radiation over a long time, so the total radiation exposure will be high.
This can be potentially mutagenic.
This is more dangerous then, for example short exposure to more intence radiation, lets say beta or gamma.
Tritium is actually alfa emitter, not gamma.
While alfa radiation is ionising, the penetration of it is VERY low. Alfa particles are stopped by a sheet of paper.
Thay have so little energy, that they can not be detected by standart Geiger counter. They are only detectable by scintilation countung, which is acually the basic principle of tritiun sights. You have very small amount of tritium sealed in the capluse with some scintilation agent. Particles that hit the scintilator cause loss of electron on its outer shell. The atom changes its anergy state, releasing enough energy to be seen as cisible light (this is over simplification, but it describes the basic principle).
As far a ganger to health, unless you have direct exposure to large quantity of tritium (>50 KBq), nothing will hapen. The danger of tritium is its long halve life. If you ingest it, exposed tissues will recieve low dose of radiation over a long time, so the total radiation exposure will be high.
This can be potentially mutagenic.
This is more dangerous then, for example short exposure to more intence radiation, lets say beta or gamma.
(As opposed to heavy water made with deuterium.)What oktagon says is true. Tritium releases particles with so little energy they cannot penetrate the dead cells making up the surface of your skin. In that respect, we are said to be "self shielding." Oktagon also implies that the particles do not exit the sights and that sounds right to me.
Tritium is really only dangerous if it is part of an organic molecule that could end up as a relatively permanent part of you. I used to work with tritiated thymidine, which is incorporated into DNA when cells prepare to divide, and...well...that's where it stays.
Tritium is really only dangerous if it is part of an organic molecule that could end up as a relatively permanent part of you. I used to work with tritiated thymidine, which is incorporated into DNA when cells prepare to divide, and...well...that's where it stays.
Tritium does not and cannot release alpha particles. It simply can't since its only one proton and 2 neutrons. An alpha particle is the nucleus of a helium atom (2 protons and 2 neutrons) and only occurs in large isotopes which want to go smaller.
Tritium undergoes Beta decay (electron) and becomes Helium. So abraham was for the most part correct except for the part about gamma rays.
It is low energy and has no serious risk of causing cancer, unless you injest or absorb it through your skin. Even then the amount in gun sites are so small that you don't really need to concern yourself.
Tritium undergoes Beta decay (electron) and becomes Helium. So abraham was for the most part correct except for the part about gamma rays.
It is low energy and has no serious risk of causing cancer, unless you injest or absorb it through your skin. Even then the amount in gun sites are so small that you don't really need to concern yourself.
I stand corrected and agree with bamf as far as tririum being a low energy beta-emmiter. I guess I've been out of med school for too long.
As far as exposure and health risks, what I posted earlier is correct. You really have to eat the contens of your sights in order to get any exposure. Sights usually contain somewhere in the order of 50 millicuies of radioactive material. Actually it is quite a bit. Halve life of tritium is pretty long, about 12 years or so. If you do ingest most of it and menage to have it incorporated into biomolecules, it will have damaging effect on the cells, but in all likelyhood even if mutagenisis will occur you will never develop any malignancies because your immune systen is very good at detecting and killing abnormal cells. As a matter of fact most cells can detect DNA damage themselves and if it is not repairable, they commit suicide (apoptosis).
As far as exposure and health risks, what I posted earlier is correct. You really have to eat the contens of your sights in order to get any exposure. Sights usually contain somewhere in the order of 50 millicuies of radioactive material. Actually it is quite a bit. Halve life of tritium is pretty long, about 12 years or so. If you do ingest most of it and menage to have it incorporated into biomolecules, it will have damaging effect on the cells, but in all likelyhood even if mutagenisis will occur you will never develop any malignancies because your immune systen is very good at detecting and killing abnormal cells. As a matter of fact most cells can detect DNA damage themselves and if it is not repairable, they commit suicide (apoptosis).
That's correct, jcoyoung. HTO is the "heavier water" I said it would turn into (as oposed to H2O). The tritium itself in the water molecule is no more dangerous than the gaseous form of tritium. The dangerous part is that it is now more easily incorporated into body tissue where it can remain for a long time. When you asked the question, I thought you meant does it turn into a poison like cyanide, chlorine, etc., which can kill when you breathe it in. If you happened to breathe in enough HTO it could eventually kill you, but it would not be fast and the cause of death would probably be hard to determine. How much is "enough", I dunno. We would have to get the opinion of a health physicist for the answer.
Indeed!
I think the scintillation material in your average yellow-green set of night sights is phosphorus. The decaying tritium sends off its beta "waves" which hit electrons in the outer shell of the phosphorus atom. The beta wave disappears and its energy is transferred to increasing the energy of the electron. This electron stays "energized" for a while but soon releases its energy and reverts to its original state--a "quantum leap." The stored energy is released as light of a characteristic wavelength-- "phosphorescence." The tritium continuously decays so the sights continuously glow.
On the other hand, many cheap glow-in-the-dark things like toys or watches require exposure to light for them to glow for a little while. This is because they are painted only with the scintillation agent. They require ambient light to energize those electrons--then they glow for a little while because they are not continuously recharged by the expensive tritium.
But, that still holds true for tritium sights-- they glow much brighter after recently being exposed to bright light. Possibly a consideration if you are jumping into a dark building to shoot a bunch of dark-adapted bad guys.
Hey Oktagon, I'm still in medical school. I don't know what kind of medical school you went to, but no one talks about radioactive decay in mine!
I think the scintillation material in your average yellow-green set of night sights is phosphorus. The decaying tritium sends off its beta "waves" which hit electrons in the outer shell of the phosphorus atom. The beta wave disappears and its energy is transferred to increasing the energy of the electron. This electron stays "energized" for a while but soon releases its energy and reverts to its original state--a "quantum leap." The stored energy is released as light of a characteristic wavelength-- "phosphorescence." The tritium continuously decays so the sights continuously glow.
On the other hand, many cheap glow-in-the-dark things like toys or watches require exposure to light for them to glow for a little while. This is because they are painted only with the scintillation agent. They require ambient light to energize those electrons--then they glow for a little while because they are not continuously recharged by the expensive tritium.
But, that still holds true for tritium sights-- they glow much brighter after recently being exposed to bright light. Possibly a consideration if you are jumping into a dark building to shoot a bunch of dark-adapted bad guys.
Hey Oktagon, I'm still in medical school. I don't know what kind of medical school you went to, but no one talks about radioactive decay in mine!