On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <a...@lomaxdesign.com>wrote:
Well, think about it, Axil. The button is a circular piece of metal, > probably steel. It has a well in it, shallow, as I described. At the bottom > of the well, there is what looks like, under magnification, some kind of > "smear" of something. It would be americium oxide, which is insoluble. You > can swallow this stuff, apparently without harm, because it does not > dissolve with stomach acides. This would be 0.9 microcurie of Am-241, which > is really tiny. > I think a danger with alpha sources is inhaling them in powdered form or when they are deposited on airborne dust or vapor, such that they become lodged in the lungs. Also, americium seeks bone if it enters the blood, where it remains for a long time [1]. Eric [1] http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp156.pdf
