The Collectors Who Hunt Down Radioactive Glassware
atlasobscura.com
atlasobscura.com
At what point does the harmless level of radioactivity from a single plate turn into an excess concentration that ought to be kept in a suitable enclosure? What kind of particles do these pieces give off? I'm presuming they give off gamma radiation, so a wooden and glass china cabinet wouldn't suffice.
Of course you wouldn’t want to inhale or ingest dust from a broken piece of uranium glass; your insides are much more susceptible to radiation than than the dead outer layer of your skin is.
On the other hand, you wouldn’t want to breathe in or eat the dust from ordinary glass either; it’s pretty bad for you!
Uranium glass isn’t really dangerous; it’s mostly just pretty. Even a block of uranium metal isn’t dangerous (though I would wash my hands after handling it, same as with lead).
Oh, I stand corrected. No concerns about the emissions then. And no, I wouldn't eat or breathe glass dust at all!