Too much Americiumfluoride in tea !!! (2026 Update)

In terms of alphas specifically, I'd say under the threshold of detection is the way to be. Alphas are nasty things to be eating.

Certainly I own one. And I do check things out sometimes. Especially produce that we buy on farmer's markets, etc. Using it requires some degree of technical knowledge, bit nothing that cannot be learned in about 15 minutes. For me, NOT testing what you eat is strange, but opinions differ.

Sasha.

And have you found something strange in some kind of cinese teas, or something similar? What kind of suspect products have you found? Don't know why, but I have never thought that was possible to drink or eat something containing dangerous rays before.

My God, Dada, you have never heard of radioactive contamination? I am not going to go into much of the subject here, bud I did find some elevated levels of gamma r/a in tap water during my field work in rural Nevada. Knowing that Nevada was a test site state, one shouldn't be too suprised. That was years ago, though. And I had no idea what the "safe" levels were. I just ran out and bought bottled water.

Sasha.

Wow - a degree of paranoia to which I have never even aspired. Of course, here in the northeastern US, background radon levels from cracked granite are so high that mere fallout and nuke-plant meltdowns are relatively inconsequntial.

I have a simple one I made as a pre-teen nerd. I occasionally take it out to show someone that the following really are pretty hot: old luminous-dial watches, the high-dispersion glass elements in older camera lenses, and red Fiestaware.

But never tea.

-DM

If I lived in Nevada, I'd probably be worried, too.

But here in Minnesota, we've got bigger issues with CO and Radon. It's "seal up your house and keep all the cold air out, or else you're going to give the power company half of your paycheck each month" season, which happens to coincide with greater danger from CO and Radon.

Watches and camera lenses, I knew. But red Fiestaware? All of it, or just the older stuff?

Thank goodness.

Ah, but keep in mind (and Sasha I don't know if this is why or not, pure idle speculation) that Russia or more specifically Ukraine is the one place recently that has had a major nuclear meltdown. And the veggies and soil within a certain radius is, of course, still radioactive to a detrimental degree.

Not keeping people from moving there though...folks gotta eat even if it glows.

Completely off topic, but at one point I had to have my thyroid oblated (that means nuked , cooked, shrunk) and they gave me a radioactive iodine pill for it (iodine collects in the thyroid). When they brought it out of the little case it was in, I asked them to pass a Geiger counter over it...

Me being the nerd I am, I thought it was cool. I also thought it was cool that they recommended I not sleep next to my husband for the first night or two. Just till I stopped glowing I guess.

Melinda

No this has nothing to do with being Russian and everything to do with being a geologist. I just know how radioactive rocks and soils can be and that there is no guarantee that the tomato I slice for my girls this evening has not been growing just on top of such. Certainly there are tons of other things that can harm them, but this one I know and it can be eliminated fast and simple. I am not a safety freak, but I when I drive I assume to be among suicide drivers and I switch my computer when I leaver home. I guess working for months in the wilderness without any chance to have help within hundreds of miles and later delivering yachts from Sweden to Mediterranean coast single-handedly made me that way.

Sasha.

Forgive my ignorance but alpha particles can be blocked with a piece of paper, they are nothing but helium nuclei. They have the propensity of ionising cells, as they are very heavy. In order to get damage from them you need to ingest them. Geiger counters are probably a bad tool for detecting them.

Beta particles and gamma radiation are a different kettle of fish, but they ionise much less and need to be administered in large doses. Eating Ceasium and Strontiom is bad, as those elements substitute calcium in your bones and are then permanent radiation sources.

Granite is a strong source of beta radiation, very few people hesitate to touch granite though.

In my opinion eating, or drinking, something with a large dose of chemicals on it is much worse than radiation. For instance, there was a time when teas from China and Ceylon were very high in DDT content, due to crop spraying. Don't know how the situation is now. Dioxins would be another major worry, but not radiation.

Just my tuppence

JB