Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests > Glass Animals & Figurines
Uranium Animals, Oraments, Necklaces.....anyone?
mrvaselineglass:
There are a ton of vaseline glass beads on ebay. if you go in to a bead store, they are usually called JONQUIL as their color. Take a UV light into any bead store and you will be surprised as how much lights up.
I have a handmade snowflake (made from beads and wire) that is about 7" in diameter. I have 3 ornaments with loops on them. If you want some ornaments, write to Jack Loranger and he can fix you up. his website is www.hotglass.cc He is a small one-man shop on the border between Washington State and Oregon in the United States.
In fact, if you can come up with an idea for something you want in vaseline glass, he can most likely make it. I have 2 fish, 3 octopus, 1 rooster, 1 pumpkin, 2 tall tiki glasses, 2 small tiki glasses that hold toothpicks, a pig, a dachshund, an iris with a 22" stem, 8 vases, a rose bowl, and two perfume bottles that look like a fish standing on it's tail.
This is an older picture, but you can see about 1/2 of my Loranger pieces at this link:
http://www.vaselineglass.org/loranger17.jpg
And, if you want to drop in for a visit on the weekend, he might ask you to blow a piece of glass yourself. I got to do that, and made a cup. Took me 40 minutes, but it was the opportunity of a lifetime to add a piece of vaseline glass to my collection that I made myself.
http://www.vaselineglass.org/glassblowing.html I'm the tall guy in the pictures.
Dave Peterson
Mr Vaseline Glass
meegs:
--- Quote from: Ivo on December 03, 2010, 07:59:56 AM ---
The reason why these are not common is that there is a risk when you wear uranium glass on the skin. So if you do, consider wearing it on a lead turtleneck sweater.
--- End quote ---
Ivo, I trust you're just having fun here and teasing us.....
Otherwise I'm done for!
Meegs
Ivo:
--- Quote from: meegs on December 04, 2010, 05:44:04 AM ---Ivo, I trust you're just having fun here and teasing us.....
--- End quote ---
No really - it is not wise to wear uranium beads on the skin all the time. I am the first to laugh away perceived risks of leaking lead in decanters and radiation from handling uranium glass - but I'd draw the line at wearing it directly on the skin.
mrvaselineglass:
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
Ohio:
While I can see Ivo's concern about wearing a necklace made of beads containing any of the Uranium Oxides since it would be near your thyroid, multiple scientific studies have proven there is no short or long term health hazards associated with manufactured vaseline glass.
I will however add a codicil, Ivo's concerns would be justified when it came to the glass workers who were involved using Uranium Oxides from the late 1800's into the 1940's during the manufacturing process, long before there were any concerns raised regarding occupational safety hazard issues. Ken
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