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Radiation Hazard from Luminous Watches

Abstract

IN 1956, the Medical Research Council Committee set up to report on the medical aspects of nuclear radiation estimated that luminous watches and clocks increased the population dose of radiation to the gonads by 1 per cent of the natural background1. This estimate was based on the assumption that the average wrist-watch contains about one-fifth of a microcurie of radium. Libby2, reporting a similar investigation, quotes a figure of 1 microcurie of radium per watch as being “perhaps slightly larger than average”.

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References

  1. The Hazards to Man of Nuclear and Allied Radiations” (H.M. Stationery Office, London, 1956).

  2. Libby, W. F., Science, 122, 57 (1955).

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  3. Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, Brit. J. Radiol., Supp. No. 6 (1955).

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HAYBITTLE, J. Radiation Hazard from Luminous Watches. Nature 181, 1422 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1811422a0

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