Has my Staticmaster made me a criminal?

[George Kara]

In approx 1.5 months Im off to South America and am slowly gathering photography accessories from the studio. One item I have always taken on trips both domestic and abroad is the staticmaster brush.

I rarely read the fine print and its gonna bite me. Evidently, the staticmaster contains POLONIUM in potentially lethal doses!

I have been carrying this frickin thing like a tooth brush on all my domestic and foreign travels. Shit - it is radioactive material.

Being of southern Italian decent, my wife is always kidding me that I look like a terrorist. I always make sure that I speak with my southwestern American accent for security personnel.

I have traveled in the South Pacific, the U.S, Europe, and South America, through every type screening possible and never has this been an issue.

Any of you who are not terrorists want to buy a vintage staticmaster brush? No dirty bombs accepted although I may consider a dirty lens.

Please PM me at GBush@fbi.org

Seriously though, how should I dispose of this thing?

George

[Walter Calahan]

I still have my staticmaster I bought in college in 1974. Why get rid of it?

If you have to dispose of it, call your local recycling / treatment center. The radioactive element in smoke alarms are taken in all the time.

Just don't travel with it. Leave it at home, and buy a traditional lens brush.

[Kirk Gittings]

Walter, What is the halflife of one of those puppies? 33 years.....is it still glowing?

[JW Dewdney]

They're dead after a few months - for all intents and purposes. IIRC - the half life of Po is 30 days or so. Po in that form emits alpha particles, HUGELY 'radioactive' but only travel about 5mm or so, MAX. That's what (according to media speculation) putin used to poison that ex-KGB guy or politician or whatever he was.

Not so great for incendiary devices... but you really DON'T wanna go swallowing the stuff!

[tim atherton]

They're dead after a few months - for all intents and purposes. IIRC - the half life of Po is 30 days or so. Po in that form emits alpha particles, HUGELY 'radioactive' but only travel about 5mm or so, MAX. That's what (according to media speculation) putin used to poison that ex-KGB guy or politician or whatever he was.

Not so great for incendiary devices... but you really DON'T wanna go swallowing the stuff!

138.376 days according to the Wiki... and staticmasters apparently had about
500 microcuries of 210Po

I forget - whose our radiocativity expert on here (we do have one)?

[JW Dewdney]

So - I wonder if my unused staticmaster is still good...? It's ten years old... not likely I guess!

[Ole Tjugen]

138.376 days according to the Wiki... and staticmasters apparently had about
500 microcuries of 210Po

I forget - whose our radiocativity expert on here (we do have one)?

I'm one - and there are a few others.

A half-life of 138.376 days means that after a year, there's less than one eigth left. So after three years, there's less than one microcurie if it started out with about 500.


Carrying a (live) staticmaster on international flights might now be so wise, yet it's difficult to detect - very few airports are equipped with alpha detectors, and you have to take the source out of all packaging to measure the radiation.

The lethal dose of polonium is very, very small due to the radioactivity. The alpha radiation won't do you any harm as long as it's outside your body (the skin is enough to stop the radiation), but inside the body it's extremely harmful. Don't eat it...

[j.e.simmons]

Mine is more than 20-years old. The brush is nice and soft and removes dust whether it nukes the negative or not.
juan

[Brian C. Miller]

I just bought a Staticmaster with a ground strap. There was no warning at all about radioactive substances, unlike my non-strap brushes.