Meegs
Ivo has one opinion. My wife was also worried about vaseline glass jewelry, especially beaded necklaces, so we went to The University of Oklahoma in July 1999 and talked to Dr. Paul Skierkowski, PhD, The states's Certified Health Physicist and Radiation Safety officer. Skierkowski did not recommend carrying around a bunch of vaseline glass marbles in your pocket for the next 20 years, but he had no concerns about wearing jewelry on occasion, because he said the amount of radiation coming from the vaseline glass is so very low.
The following month after this visit, a good friend of mine, Madolyn Courter, and her husband, Larry (a retired PhD in medicine, specializing in radiology), went to the University of Missouri and visited with Susan M. Langhorst, Phd, Chp, who was the radiation safety officer and the Director of Envionmental Health and Safety at that location. From natural and manmade sources, each person in the world receives about 360 millirems annually from naturally occurring sources. These radiation sources include cosmic radiation, radon (about 200 millirems per year), medical procedures (like x-rays - about 40 millirems per year), and consumer products. The occupational limits set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sets occupational limits of 5000 millirems per year exposure. The Courters had various pieces of vaseline glass tested to find out the amount of beta waves being emitted from their glass. A 4" Daisy and Button ashtray, (which by weight, is considerably larger than a string of beads), put out .9 millirems per hour. An open salt dish put out .65 millirems per hour.
Interestingly, a orange Fiesta pottery plate that used uranium oxide as a coloring agent put out 10 millirems per hour, a full 10X more than the vaseline glass ashtray.
a millirem is short for a milliroentgen and is 1/1000th of a roentgen. A lethal dose of radiation is 500 rems over a period of several hours. As there are a 1000 millirems in every 1 rem, that takes a lot of exposure! Susan Langhorst even had two pieces of vaseline glass on her office desk, and was not concerned about shielding it. Her comment was that it was too pretty to lock away in a cabinet.
Langhorst also mentioned that the citizens of Denver, Colorado (the mile high city) receive about 90 millirems more radiation on an annual basis than someone living at sea level, yet the rate of cancer of the general population was no greater.
If you analyze these numbers, provided by nuclear scientists, you will reach the same conclusion I reached. I sit in a room with about 300 pieces of vaseline glass on a daily basis, and have no concerns whatsoever about being overly exposed to radiation.
(I would be more concerned about exposure to the 'lead turtleneck sweater' that Ivo proposed than occasional usage of a vaseline glass necklace. Lead is not necessarily a good thing either!)
Mr. Vaseline Glass
Dave Peterson