SteveBraun Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 I remember when I was young a friend of ours had a small record cleaning brush that apparently was banned because it was radioactive. Does anyone know anything about this? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stump Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer products/staticeliminator.htm 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FR DRew Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 Staticmaster antistatic brush is still available from the US. Polonium 210 source inside (somewhere there's an emoji for WTF, freaking terrifying, are they nuts?). $89 US and still in stock... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 At least it would be easy to find, as I would expect it to glow in the dark. A lime green colour, like radioactivity is depicted on The Simpsons. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveBraun Posted September 9, 2019 Author Share Posted September 9, 2019 This was back in the 1970s. I'm wondering if our friend at that time who had this thing got cancer of the hand or something like that. I remember him joking about how this thing was banned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregWormald Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 I've never heard of an LP brush but I did have a 35mm film brush with the radioactive insert. At the time they said it was too weak to be harmful. The static elimination only lasted a few years and the replacement strip was too expensive so I ditched the whole idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eman Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 22 hours ago, FR DRew said: Staticmaster antistatic brush is still available from the US. Polonium 210 source inside (somewhere there's an emoji for WTF, freaking terrifying, are they nuts?). $89 US and still in stock... https://amstat.com/products/anti-static-brush-with-ionizing-cartridge-1.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 G'day all, such things were very popular in many household items in past years. At least the zerostat uses a non radioactive piezoelectric approach to static removal and mine works fine. This is a interesting website. https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer products/consumer.htm Regards, Felix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian McP Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 9 minutes ago, eman said: https://amstat.com/products/anti-static-brush-with-ionizing-cartridge-1.html Nothing to worry yourself about, your house smoke detectors also contain radioactive sources https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/radiation-sources/more-radiation-sources/smoke-detectors Have granite benchtops? they're radioactive too! Very low level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 G'day all, smoke alarms do worry me actually. Years ago Wormalds used to install ones in Government premises and the like using rather high activity Radium 226 and were very radioactive, and in my opinion not safe. These days smoke alarms for sale tend to use an Americium isotope which is safer but is still a potent alpha particle/ gamma ray ionisation radioactive source. The 'optical' smoke detectors are now more recommended by authorities like ARPANSA. Regards, Felix. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eman Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 21 hours ago, Ian McP said: Nothing to worry yourself about, your house smoke detectors also contain radioactive sources https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/radiation-sources/more-radiation-sources/smoke-detectors Have granite benchtops? they're radioactive too! Very low level. Have always wondered about that. Couldn't shut mine up even after a dismantle and clean, so .... not there now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abelb Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 Very cool stuff in the links here. The polonium 210 brush is only an alpha particle emitter and alpha particles don’t penetrate far like gamma rays. It won’t even penetrate through the dead skin cells on your hand or a few CM of air. Still scary from a contamination perspective if the brush was broken or tampered with (you wouldn’t want to ingest or inhale any polonium!) The idea is that the radiation strips the electrons from the air near the brush which then makes the air soak up any static charge on the record surface. Very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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