Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 20:49:29 -0800 (PST) From: Rhett Monteg Hollander <victorysoldier@yahoo.com> To: Kent Stewart <kstewart@owt.com> Cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ECC memory error reporting Message-ID: <20030217044929.22208.qmail@web40306.mail.yahoo.com>
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>Tritium has a 12.5 year half life and gives off a low energy beta >particle and no gamma. IIRC, a sheet of paper is supposed to stop >betas. Alphas, not betas. Alpha particle consists of a He nucleus (2 neutrons + 2 protons), and since it carries positive charge and is relatively massive, it can be halted by a single sheet of paper. Absolutely no danger to human health. But beta particle (an electron) is much less charged\massive; high-charged betas like from P-32 or P-33 can cause slight damage to human health, but low-charged like you mentioned from H-3 cannot even penetrate through skin. You can wash you hands in D2O (aka "heavy water"), and won't get any harm. >Radium, which was used in the early glow-in-the-dark watches, mostly >gives off energetic alphas and gammas. Some isotopes of radium have >half lives in seconds and some in K years. The daughter products >aren't any nicer. When it comes to being nasty, Tritium isn't even >on the same planet. Though radium was used there, but mostly phosphorus including some radioactive isotopes. Those people at the military factories were usually damaged by chemical solutions of phosphorus and hydrargyrum (when skin or air contact took place). Co-60 and Zn-65 can emit gamma radiation (photons), but in relatively low quantities. Several grams of Ra-226 when located close to human body for an hour can definitely make him a potential client of local undertaking service. --- Regards, Rhett >Kent __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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