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.
Nowhere in the article does it mention the half life of radioactive Tritium.
One night, at the local Walmart, all of the ‘dividers’ that customers use in the checkout line to mark the end of the itmes of the customers on the checkout conveyor belt dissappeared.
Ha. I’ll have to send this to our safety guy at work. I know some libtards I work with that I can panic.
Can buy the signs anywhere for public, business, private use
http://www.elights.com/srbledexsig.html
But Wal Mart is Bad!!! Bad!!!
Just think of that UV light bulb/globes in your home..head spins after a while ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVaaibQUHww
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 9:30 AM
Subject: Re: David Hahn Radioactivity
> The piece you allude to was a piece of nonfiction, yes.
>
> Best,
>
> —
> * * *
> Rachel A. Monahan
> Assistant Editor
> Harper’s Magazine
> 666 Broadway
> New York, NY 10012
> (212) 420-5784
http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.chem/2004-06/0024.html
Before investing in ROP paranoria, how do the statistics of missing exit signs compare with missing lamp fixtures and other similar equipment in Walmart? May they get tossed when they break.
Iran ordered 70,000 of these signs? I’ve never been to Iran; but, I bet they don’t have big box discount stores and fire codes requiring illuminated exit signs....somebody is up to something.
Question - our local Wal Mart has more security cameras than Ft Knox (seriously, I was stationed there). How does one steal the exit signs?
Eighth Grader Arrested For Setting Off Soda Bottle-Bomb In School http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7014078669
Feb. 13th.
Springfield, MA (AHN) - A 15-year-old eighth grade student was arrested Friday for setting off a soda bottle-bomb containing acids in a hallway of a school in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Police booked the boy for possession of an incendiary device and disruption of classes at the Chestnut Accelerated Middle School,
Even the kids are making bombs..and he didnt need an exit sign from Wal Mart to do so.
...in 1994, an internal Wal-Mart memo stated Wal-Mart parking lot crime, which represented 80 percent of all crimes at Wal-Mart stores, could be reduced to as “low as zero with roving security cart patrols.” In 2000, six years later, Jay Allen, then Vice President of Corporate Affairs, acknowledged 41 percent of Wal-Mart’s parking lots had no surveillance cameras and 83 percent did not have roving security patrols. Mr. Allen’s report served to highlight how little was done to address the public safety concerns raised in the earlier report.
And yet, since 2000, even with horrific examples of violent crimes and even rapes at Wal-Mart stores, Wal-Mart has not publicly adopted a company-wide policy of installing staffed security cameras and instituting roving security patrols at all of its stores.
It was reported that cameras focused more on where workers congregate.’
Source. Wal Mart Crime Reports from Make Walmart Safe
http://walmartcrimereport.com/letter.html?more=1
I saw a flat bed store cart being stolen last night when I drove out of the mall ..kid with his hood up. Staples probably was the place of origin. You know how the economy is and the cost of moving ;)
“... could be used in a dirty bomb.”
Just how would it be used .. and what is the result of such use ..??
Inquiring minds want to know.
Planning on hauling more Heineken when the next strom hits maybe?
Figures.
Seems to be some poetic justice in there somewhere.
Anyone know where I can buy these in the USA?
Perhaps they were purchased but never delivered and installed. Wouldn’t be the first nor the last fraud.
I saw a gun. I’m offended.
I’m just quoting the article. If you want your question answered ask the author.
Or... if Tritium is so bad, maybe we should just go back to using Radium for glow-in-the-dark applications. That never hurt anyone and it was much better for watch dials than is used today. On the downside, the most common, Radium 226, has a half-life of 1,622 years so the Greens will never go for that.
Sheesh, ya can't please anyone today. Everyone has to whine about something.
Yes.
At least, indirectly.
≤}B^)
I’m not sure that theey use Tritium in any current bomb design. They make most or all of the needed Tritium at the time of detonation through neutron bombardment of Lithium-6 Deuteride (a solid).
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