Tungsten and Thorium

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: Tungsten and Thorium
• From: Bill the arcstarter <arcstarter-at-hotmail-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
• Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 05:19:52 -0600
• Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
• Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

Guys,
With all this talk of thorium, etc, here are my two cents:

The main hazard from thoriated tungsten is from the dust produced during the 
grinding of TIG welding points.

Thorium is an alpha emitter, which mean that the thorium under the surface 
will not be able to radiate you.  Meanwhile, the thorium on the top will 
produce alpha particles, which won't even penetrate more than 1-2 inches or 
air.

There are non radioactive equivalents to thoriated tungsten.  Some are 
proprietary, but most are mized or zirconium, lanthium (?), stuff like that.

In short - thoriated tungsten really isn't much of a danger unless you are 
breathing the grindings.

-Bill


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