Radioactive Lenses

[Dave Erb]

For what its worth... There have been several questions about older lenses with glass containing radioactive constituents (e.g., thorium and lanthanum) used to improve index of refraction properties. The concern promtped me to put a quest ion to the Health Physics Society's "Ask an Expert" forum. Their response is gi ven in:

http://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q1356.html.

Hope this helps others understand the issues and risks.

Dave Erb

[Doug Paramore]

I can't find the answer on the web address you gave, however I would be interested to know if there has ever been one photographer who developed any sort of problems directly related to the use of lenses with thorium or lanthanum glass elements. I certainly never heard of one or read of one. On the other hand, if there is enough radiation to glow brightly in the dark, it might eliminate the need for fill flash.

Regards,

[Christopher Campbell]

I had no problem using the URL above to read the response. However, I did remove the spurious period at the end of the line when I cut as pasted the address into my browser.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Interesting note at the end of that piece on uranium toners. For the darkroom worker who likes to live on the edge, there are recipes at:

http://www.jackspcs.com/toner.htm

Don't forget to wear your lead apron.

[J. P. Mose]

The following website provides a lot of interesting information about radioactivity and lenses:

http://people.smu.edu/rmonagha/mf/radioactive.html

Enjoy!

J. P. Mose