Click on my lightsaber to see what some kids do with themselves and things that glow....
Posted on 02/15/2009 9:15:56 AM PST by fanfan
It began in late 2007 as a routine audit. Retail giant Wal-Mart noticed that some exit signs at the company's stores and warehouses had gone missing.
As the audit spread across Wal-Mart's U.S. operations, the mystery thickened. Stores from Arkansas to Washington began reporting missing signs. They numbered in the hundreds at first, then the thousands. Last month Wal-Mart disclosed that about 15,800 of its exit signs – a stunning 20 per cent of its total inventory – are lost, missing, or otherwise unaccounted for at 4,500 facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico.
Poor housekeeping, certainly, but what's the big deal?
In a word: radiation.
The signs contain tritium gas, a radioactive form of hydrogen. Tritium glows when it interacts with phosphor particles, a phenomenon that has led to the creation of glow-in-the-dark emergency exit signs.
It's estimated there are more than 2 million tritium-based exit signs in use across North America.
It turns out that Ontario-based companies SRB Technologies (Canada) Inc. of Pembroke and Shield Source Inc. of Peterborough have sold the lion's share of these signs, which use tritium produced as a by-product from the operation of Canadian-made Candu nuclear reactors.
The health effects of tritium exposure continue to be a hot topic of debate. It's not strong enough to penetrate the skin, and in low quantities regulators and industry groups say tritium is safe. But when inhaled or ingested it can cause permanent changes to cells and has been linked to genetic abnormalities, developmental and reproductive problems and other health issues such as cancer.
"The problem is that because it's hydrogen it can actually become part of your body," says Shawn-Patrick Stensil of Greenpeace Canada. "The radiation doesn't emit far, but when it actually becomes part of your cell it's right next to your DNA. So for a pregnant woman, for example, it can be really dangerous."
General exposure from one broken sign might be the equivalent of getting up to three chest X-rays, even though today we no longer give pregnant women X-rays. If tritium is ingested, for example, by a child who breaks a sign with a hockey stick, it's much more potent. If only 5 per cent of the tritium in a large exit sign is ingested, it would be equivalent to 208 years of natural background radiation, according to a report from the Product Stewardship Institute at the University of Massachusetts.
And what about exposure from thousands of signs dumped near a source of drinking water, or packed with explosives in the back of a truck that has been driven into a crowded building?
"I'm sure thousands of them would create a credible dirty bomb," says Norm Rubin, director of nuclear research at Energy Probe in Toronto. "Most experts think the main purpose of a dirty bomb is to cause panic, disruption and expensive cleanup rather than lots of dead bodies. A bunch of tritium, especially if oxidized in an explosion, would probably do that job fine."
Tritium is also a component in nuclear warheads. In 2005, SRB Technologies got permission from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to export 70,000 of its tritium exit signs to Iran. Foreign Affairs Canada blasted the regulator for allowing shipment to a country that's attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction. The shipment went through.
South of the border, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission appears more concerned with tritium contamination of landfills and the threat of leaching into drinking water. The agency regulates the use of tritium devices, requiring the reporting of lost, stolen or broken property and proper cleanup and disposal.
"Throughout the whole process we stayed in very close contact with the NRC and received their guidance," said Wal-Mart spokesperson Daphne Davis Moore. "We no longer use these signs in our stores."
Wal-Mart's poor recordkeeping was a wake-up call for the nuclear agency, which in January sternly reminded users of the signs of their regulatory obligations. At the same time, it assured the public there's nothing to worry about.
Still, the agency was concerned enough to demand that any organization possessing 500 or more tritium exit signs conduct audits and report their findings within 60 days. The list included Home Depot, AMC Theatres and a number of universities and schools.
Wal-Mart Canada says it has a few tritium exit signs in most of its stores. "We've gone back over our records and have not found any reason for concern," said spokesperson Kevin Groh. "We are doing an audit to get an accurate inventory." The difference, in Canada, is they don't have to do it. Users of the signs are not licensed in Canada as long as the product is properly marked as radioactive, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. This makes it difficult to determine exactly how many tritium signs exist in Canada and where they end up.
Stensil of Greenpeace said it's a strange way for a government to treat a radioactive device, but he's not surprised. He said the federal government has always had lax rules when it comes to tritium, partly because Canada, through its Candu nuclear plants, is one of the biggest producers of the substance in the world.
Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg, who teaches environmental health at the University of Toronto, said there's a double standard in Canada when it comes to regulating tritium. Permissible levels in drinking water here are 100 times greater than in Europe and more than 400 times greater than in California.
She was shocked when told about the 15,800 missing tritium signs at Wal-Mart, but even more surprised to learn that use of such signs isn't tracked or monitored in Canada.
"Most people haven't even heard of tritium," she lamented.
Tritium emits beta particles - electrons. You know, those things that come out of the wall socket? Any claims that it causes cancer are bunko.
Smoke detectors contain Americium-241, not Tritium.
Turn off all the lights then start looking around. They probably fell off the wall then were kicked behind some boxes or storage shelves.........
SNIP* CRACKPOT DHIREN BAROT: Redacted evidence provides riches of embarrassment
http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2007/02/crackpot-dhiren-barot-redacted-evidence.html
In other words, one is asked to believe that a dirty bomb can be made from thousands of smoke detectors.
However, making a dirty bomb from a lorry full of the household items wasn’t Barot’s only wish. He also fiddled with other really stupid ideas.
One involved used exit signs as a weapon of terror. In the United States, exit signs containing a very small amount of tritium, a radioisotope of hydrogen, have been smashed in buildings and thrown into landfills (broken and leaking) for years. It’s thought to be a slight hazard but no one really cares about the issue as the danger is negligible.
One of Dhiren Barot’s dirty bomb plots proposed the throwing of exist signs into the middle of rooms.
Tritium readily forms water when exposed to oxygen. As it undergoes radioactive decay, tritium emits a very low energy beta particle and transforms to stable, nonradioactive helium. Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years.
Current treatment of landfill leachates do not remove tritium.
As with all ionizing radiation, exposure to tritium increases the risk of developing cancer. However, because it emits very low energy radiation and leaves the body relatively quickly, for a given amount of activity ingested, tritium is one of the least dangerous radionuclides. Since tritium is almost always found as water, it goes directly into soft tissues and organs. The associated dose to these tissues are generally uniform and dependent on the tissues’ water content.
Barot also dallied with getting tritium for a dirty bomb from wristwatches.
Further explained in EPA fact sheet and/or search:tritium exit signs, etc.
More at: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/tritium.html
I wonder if “Good” “Union” companies like Target & Costco have such nefarious devices in their stores?
How charmingly Canadian!
Really, this Wal-Mart’s fault.
Really, I mean it. Those little old ladies at the exit doors
have got to be taught how to tackle those
thieves instead of...”thanks for shopping Wal-Mart.”
Tritium is used in H-bombs.
Be VERY afraid.
Just be prepared to nuke someone (Mecca?) in response.
Cheers!
It has a half life of about 12 1/2 years, so it is around for a while.
However, EPA does state “ may increase the risk “
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/tritium.html#environment
Yes, it’s called CYA.
DETROIT — A man who became the subject of a book called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" after trying to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager has been charged with stealing 16 smoke detectors. Police say it was a possible effort to experiment with radioactive materials.
David Hahn, 31, was being held Friday on a $5,000 bond in the Macomb County Jail after he was arraigned Thursday on felony larceny charges. Clinton Township police Capt. Richard Maierle said Hahn denied the charges.
A district court clerk on Friday said Hahn did not have an attorney. The Associated Press called the jail in an effort to speak to Hahn, but a sheriff's spokesman said the jail does not give messages to inmates. His preliminary examination was scheduled for Aug. 13.
Investigators say Hahn was arrested Wednesday after a maintenance worker saw him stealing a detector from a ceiling in an apartment complex where he lived. They later found the other detectors in his apartment in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township.
Police say that Hahn's face was covered with open sores, possibly from constant exposure to radioactive materials.
Hahn learned that a small amount of a radioactive isotope could be found in smoke detectors during his experiments in the 1990s, according to a 1998 article in Harper's Magazine that later expanded into a book by journalist Ken Silverstein.
Maierle said his department evacuated the apartment complex and called the state police bomb squad, which found no hazardous materials.
He said officials learned in January that Hahn had returned to the area after serving in the U.S. Navy.
"Because of his past, we were a tad bit concerned," he said, adding his department alerted the FBI when they found out he was back in Michigan. "We didn't want any other radioactive sites to pop up."
Hahn's first brush with authorities came in August 1994, after police stopped him during an investigation into neighborhood tire thefts. Officers found radioactive materials, chemicals, rocks, plastic and glass bottles and two exploded pipes in his car, Maierle said.
In a subsequent interview with a state health official, Hahn said he had been trying to produce energy and hoped it would help him earn his Eagle Scout badge, according to the Harper's article. Hahn also acknowledged having a backyard laboratory in a potting shed at his mother's home in Oakland County's Commerce Township, the article said.
Authorities declared the structure a hazardous materials site and sealed it. Crews from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency led a Superfund cleanup in 2005 that included dismantling the shed and shipping its remains to be buried at a low-level radioactive waste site in Utah, the article said.
Hahn received a Scouting merit badge for atomic energy in 1991, the article said.
Maierle said Hahn's 1994 arrest was expunged in 1996. His arrest this week was reported by The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens.
Seems like every WalMart door would have an exit sign, plus a security camera pointed at it to catch anyone leaving with unpaid for merchandise. And none of these security cameras saw anyone unscrewing and unwiring a single sign?
Sounds like the makings of a particularly dirty weapon that can be used in crowds without anybody knowing until the effects start showing up.
Your post is very informative, especially since my knowledge of tritium is right up there with my knowledge of rocket science. However, the info you posted won’t get disseminated and the press, if they do anything at all with this story, will use it to frighten and stampede the public.
I remember I came across a guy who would enter a site talk about just this very subject a couple years back. He was out of England. Pretty detailed as well, so watched for him to come on (usually Monday) and notified authorities just in case. The person would talk about how to make a dirty bombs and the radius it would take to do damage etc. He would focus on compiling smoke detectors etc. Said he had done this and tested it. He was probably a nut case but... That is why this story sparked my interest.
Sounds like BS to me.
You can go into just about any store and purchase far more deadly items if you want to hurt people.
Common household cleanrs, pool sanitizers, bottled propane and so on.
Exit signs? Please....
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