Luminous Watch Dials

 By Bruce Shawkey

Found this interesting article on luminous dials in a 1960 issue of Europa Star magazine.

==================

The Press has been running articles dealing with the harmful effects said to be caused by radiation for luminous watch dials.

These articles, which are often dramatized, have aroused concern amongst watch wearers and watch manufacturer have received so many questions on the subject that one Swiss firm, Eterna, has published a pamphlet titled "Luminous dials on Eterna watches are not dangerous" available in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

The first paint made by Eterna is that for fifty years the watch industry has been using luminous substances consisting mostly of zinc sulphite with a compound of radioactive substances. During this time, however, not one single case of actual injury was discovered, although examinations were conducted. Dr. Hanson Blatz, member of the American Atomic Energy Commission and one of the leading experts on radiation illness, stated in an interview, "If watch dials were actually hazardous to health, I am certain that some substance of actual illness would have come to the attention of medical science by this time."

In a special effort to find the answer to this radiation problem, Eterna consulted Professor G. Boyett, head of the Isotope Laboratory of Zurich University. After making some very precise experiments with some of the company's luminous dials, this recognized authority on radiation research came to the conclusion that there is no possibility of any harm to the owner of a wristwatch with a luminous dial.

Watches with luminous dials do emit radiation which is similar as its biological effects in X-Rays in medicine of the cosmic rays "continually bombarding the earth from the universe' the booklet adds. But even if one wears a watch continuously, the intensity of radiation at the most spot, the back of the case, where there is direct contact with the living tissue, is still below one-tenth of the maximum dose permissable to the wrist. The internationally recognized maximum doses are fixed very low so that, even in cases of radiation 10 times more intense, i.e. in a diver's watch, there is no absolutely no risk of harming the human organism.

Luminous dials do not produce any dangerous geneticeffects either, says the booklet. The increase in cosmic rays from sea level to 300 meter altitude is roughly equivalent to the genetic radiation effect of luminous watch dials,so such a watch dial is 500 times less "dangerous" than man's own body and environment.

All the values mentioned in the booklet refer to luminous compounds on the basis of radium.

-----------

We now know that radium dials and dials ARE harmful, not necessarily to the wearer, but to watchmakers and to workers who painted dials with luminous paint. Witness the documentary "The City that Glowed," about workers that painted dials in a factory in Illinois. Years after the factory closed, workers there (mostly women) contracted cancer of one form or another. Women even "tipped" the paint brushes in their mouths and painted their teeth to glow like Halloween skeletons.

Thousands of these radioactive dials and hands are floating around from as long as 100 years ago, still radioactive, and are required to be disposed of in accordance with federal guidelines for dispoh=sing of radioactive waste.