Posted: 7/9/2009 2:28:28 PM EDT
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As if the sulfur fumes and chemical reaction that eats up A/C handlers and attacks everything copper isn't bad enough ... The Miami Herald unleashed a story today that some of the imported Chinese drywall has radioactive material in it.
GREAT ! |
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For anyone who has the problem that my house has ...
July 9th The Miami Herald Copies of customs reports obtained by The Los Angeles Times show drywall made with a radioactive waste product was shipped to the states in 2006 by at least four Chinese manufacturers and trading firms. The substance, called phosphogypsum, has been banned from use in nearly all products made in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1989. The EPA says that phosphogypsum, a fertilizer byproduct, contains uranium and radium. Radium decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas. A geoscientist interviewed by The Times said the material can cause corrosion. Chinese drywall is being blamed for making newer homes smell like chemicals or sulfur, corroding air conditioner coils, blackening jewelry and other metals and causing breathing problems, nosebleeds and headaches for residents. |
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Theres some radioactivity in just about any building material. Especially brickwork. That said, it's usually in such small quantities as to not be something to worry about. Yep. It's fun to show a group of students a geiger counter. Then you walk over to a concrete wall and watch the counts start to climb. Even better, granite in the older buildings on campus 
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Theres some radioactivity in just about any building material. Especially brickwork. That said, it's usually in such small quantities as to not be something to worry about. Explain this. You've piqued my curiosity. A bunch of the matter around you emits some level of radiation. Especially stonework. It's considered "background radiation" because it's generally always there. Your own body even emits some level of radiation(very low but it is there), often influenced by what you consume. It's of such a low level that it generally isn't considered a health risk. Of course, something like Radon is another matter altogether and needs to be addressed to prevent health problems when it is found (usually in basements). Fly much? Quite a bit of radiation exposure occurs to those who spend a lot of time in airplane flight. |
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Theres some radioactivity in just about any building material. Especially brickwork. That said, it's usually in such small quantities as to not be something to worry about. Explain this. You've piqued my curiosity. Wow, I can't remember the last time someone the internet spelled that word correctly. |
I have an ounce of uranium in mineral oil. BIg deal. Of course, it's DU, not natural, so it's slightly less radioactive than if it were natural.
Natural uranium isn't very radioactive either, though. It's 99.3% U-238 (DU), and the radiation it produces doesn't penetrate more than a few inches of air, and doesn't penetrate skin. They even used to make ceramic plates with a uranium compound (Fiestaware, IIRC), since that compound was bright red and was a good coloring agent. The radiation that U-235 produces is more harmful and penetrates more, but it's such a tiny amount that 30ppm in stone would be harmless. I'd be interested to find out if this Chinese drywall is more radioactive than granite, and what kind of radiation it produces. |
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Quoted: Theres some radioactivity in just about any building material. Especially brickwork. That said, it's usually in such small quantities as to not be something to worry about. The problem is the source of the calcium sulfate. Drywall and all building products using calcium sulfate is from a mined product, not the by-product of phosphate fertilizer. While both calcium sulfate and calcium phosphate are sedimentary minerals, calcium phosphate traps uranium and radium. Calcium sulfate does not. When calcium phosphate rock is treated with sulfuric acid, the phosphate leaches out, leaving behind the other minerals. Further refining of the produced phosphoric acid removes the traces of uranium (a source Iraq had been using illegally). But most remains in the calcium sulfate which is gypsum. |
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For anyone who has the problem that my house has ... July 9th The Miami Herald Copies of customs reports obtained by The Los Angeles Times show drywall made with a radioactive waste product was shipped to the states in 2006 by at least four Chinese manufacturers and trading firms. The substance, called phosphogypsum, has been banned from use in nearly all products made in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1989. The EPA says that phosphogypsum, a fertilizer byproduct, contains uranium and radium. Radium decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas. A geoscientist interviewed by The Times said the material can cause corrosion. Chinese drywall is being blamed for making newer homes smell like chemicals or sulfur, corroding air conditioner coils, blackening jewelry and other metals and causing breathing problems, nosebleeds and headaches for residents. Yeah, all you "It's no big deal" guys might want to take a look at this part. They're putting their nuclear waste into our fucking homes! |
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Quoted: Tritium gun sites on my hip,,,, blah blah,,, The big phosphate problem comes when people burn tobacco fertilized with it. Most all tobacco is fertilized on company farms, we gettin' it from all sides. Phosphate fertilizers are REQUIRED to be refined to reduce the uranium. This is how Iraq got its illegal production of uranium. Besides, there is MORE background radiation/uranium/radium in the soil. Far more. And not many plants uptake these elements. |
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Quoted: Quoted: For anyone who has the problem that my house has ... July 9th The Miami Herald Copies of customs reports obtained by The Los Angeles Times show drywall made with a radioactive waste product was shipped to the states in 2006 by at least four Chinese manufacturers and trading firms. The substance, called phosphogypsum, has been banned from use in nearly all products made in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1989. The EPA says that phosphogypsum, a fertilizer byproduct, contains uranium and radium. Radium decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas. A geoscientist interviewed by The Times said the material can cause corrosion. Chinese drywall is being blamed for making newer homes smell like chemicals or sulfur, corroding air conditioner coils, blackening jewelry and other metals and causing breathing problems, nosebleeds and headaches for residents. Yeah, all you "It's no big deal" guys might want to take a look at this part. They're putting their nuclear waste into our fucking homes! It isn't nuclear waste. It is waste from phosphate mining. Only despots prohibited from importing uranium use phosphate tailings/refining as a source of uranium. Like Iraq under Hussein (not the middle name of the US President ).
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For anyone who has the problem that my house has ... July 9th The Miami Herald Copies of customs reports obtained by The Los Angeles Times show drywall made with a radioactive waste product was shipped to the states in 2006 by at least four Chinese manufacturers and trading firms. The substance, called phosphogypsum, has been banned from use in nearly all products made in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1989. The EPA says that phosphogypsum, a fertilizer byproduct, contains uranium and radium. Radium decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas. A geoscientist interviewed by The Times said the material can cause corrosion. Chinese drywall is being blamed for making newer homes smell like chemicals or sulfur, corroding air conditioner coils, blackening jewelry and other metals and causing breathing problems, nosebleeds and headaches for residents. Yeah, all you "It's no big deal" guys might want to take a look at this part. They're putting their nuclear waste into our fucking homes! The EPA also says carbon dioxide is a pollutant. 
Lots of other building materials contain the same materials; what matters is the concentration at which they are present. |
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For anyone who has the problem that my house has ... July 9th The Miami Herald Copies of customs reports obtained by The Los Angeles Times show drywall made with a radioactive waste product was shipped to the states in 2006 by at least four Chinese manufacturers and trading firms. The substance, called phosphogypsum, has been banned from use in nearly all products made in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1989. The EPA says that phosphogypsum, a fertilizer byproduct, contains uranium and radium. Radium decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas. A geoscientist interviewed by The Times said the material can cause corrosion. Chinese drywall is being blamed for making newer homes smell like chemicals or sulfur, corroding air conditioner coils, blackening jewelry and other metals and causing breathing problems, nosebleeds and headaches for residents. Yeah, all you "It's no big deal" guys might want to take a look at this part. They're putting their nuclear waste into our fucking homes! The EPA also says carbon dioxide is a pollutant.
Lots of other building materials contain the same materials; what matters is the concentration at which they are present. If it can turn your jewelry black, corrode A/C coils and cause nose bleeds, then chances are the concentrations are too high. 
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Zircomium. Trust me it makes the people at landfills really scared when their Geiger counters go off. It's naturally radioactive. Don't know if it's in this drywall but I know it is used in some abrasives and in refractory brick for steel furnaces and in glass furnaces. |
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For anyone who has the problem that my house has ... July 9th The Miami Herald Copies of customs reports obtained by The Los Angeles Times show drywall made with a radioactive waste product was shipped to the states in 2006 by at least four Chinese manufacturers and trading firms. The substance, called phosphogypsum, has been banned from use in nearly all products made in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1989. The EPA says that phosphogypsum, a fertilizer byproduct, contains uranium and radium. Radium decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas. A geoscientist interviewed by The Times said the material can cause corrosion. Chinese drywall is being blamed for making newer homes smell like chemicals or sulfur, corroding air conditioner coils, blackening jewelry and other metals and causing breathing problems, nosebleeds and headaches for residents. Yeah, all you "It's no big deal" guys might want to take a look at this part. They're putting their nuclear waste into our fucking homes! The EPA also says carbon dioxide is a pollutant.
Lots of other building materials contain the same materials; what matters is the concentration at which they are present. If it can turn your jewelry black, corrode A/C coils and cause nose bleeds, then chances are the concentrations are too high. That is from a different impurity, and that is problem which is going to be very expensive to fix. It has NOTHING to do with radiation. But hey, don't let cautious reasoning get in the way of the MSM's fear-mongering. |
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As if the sulfur fumes and chemical reaction that eats up A/C handlers and attacks everything copper isn't bad enough ... The Miami Herald unleashed a story today that some of the imported Chinese drywall has radioactive material in it. GREAT ! The dirt outside your house may have radioactive material in it. Depends what kind and how much. On the flip side living in Hurricane Katrina land i know a few people that do have the Tainted sheet rock in their homes. I will pass this info on to them. |
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Quoted: Zircomium. Trust me it makes the people at landfills really scared when their Geiger counters go off. It's naturally radioactive. Don't know if it's in this drywall but I know it is used in some abrasives and in refractory brick for steel furnaces and in glass furnaces. Bismuth is also radioactive. But that doesn't stop you from taking Pepto-Bismol, does it? Very weak alpha emitter, not enough to worry over. |
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Zircomium. Trust me it makes the people at landfills really scared when their Geiger counters go off. It's naturally radioactive. Don't know if it's in this drywall but I know it is used in some abrasives and in refractory brick for steel furnaces and in glass furnaces. Bismuth is also radioactive. But that doesn't stop you from taking Pepto-Bismol, does it? Very weak alpha emitter, not enough to worry over. Is that why if you drink it before you go to bed you wake up in the morning with Black fungus like stuff on your tongue? Seriously look it up. |
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Zircomium. Trust me it makes the people at landfills really scared when their Geiger counters go off. It's naturally radioactive. Don't know if it's in this drywall but I know it is used in some abrasives and in refractory brick for steel furnaces and in glass furnaces. Zirconium is not radioactive. EDIT: I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it turns out that natural zirconium has 17.38% Zr-94 and 2.8% Zr-96. The former has a half-life of one hundred quadrillion years, and the latter has a half-life of twenty quintillion years. Like bismuth, that just doesn't count. Quoted:
Bismuth is also radioactive. But that doesn't stop you from taking Pepto-Bismol, does it? Very weak alpha emitter, not enough to worry over. Yeah, technically it's radioactive, but its half-life is more than a billion times longer than the half-life of U-238. It just doesn't count. Heck, probably every element is radioactive to some extent. They may have a half-life of 1x10^100 years, there may be one decay per day, but that's still radioactive. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Zircomium. Trust me it makes the people at landfills really scared when their Geiger counters go off. It's naturally radioactive. Don't know if it's in this drywall but I know it is used in some abrasives and in refractory brick for steel furnaces and in glass furnaces. Bismuth is also radioactive. But that doesn't stop you from taking Pepto-Bismol, does it? Very weak alpha emitter, not enough to worry over. Oh exactly. The amount of Zircon in some of the refractory brick coming to a landfill seems to surprise a few people every now and then if no one alerts them ahead of time. I've had to send it out for radiological studies several times (varies by state). Once they realize what they're getting everything seems to calm down. I'm getting more radiation from my damn laptop right now. |
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Lots of things are radioactive or result in radiation exposure, smoking, foods such as bananas, milk, and mayonnaise, microwaves, radio waves, RADAR, medical x-rays.
Natural Background Sources of Radiation: Radon gas; comes from the radioactive decay of uranium which is naturally present in the soil. The radon gas can migrate through the soil and into the air. The decay products of radon attach to dust particles and may be inhaled. The decay products of radon will then deliver a dose to the tissue of the lungs. The average effective dose equivalent from radon in the United States is 200 mrem/year. Cosmic radiation; which comes from outer space and our own sun. The earths atmosphere and magnetic field affects the levels of cosmic radiation which reaches the surface, so your dose from cosmic radiation is determined by where you live. For example, the dose rate on Long Island (at sea level) is about 24 mrem/ year, while the dose rate in Denver, Colorado is 50 mrem/year. The average dose from cosmic radiation in the U.S. is 28 mrem/year. Terrestrial sources; exist because a number of materials have remained radioactive since the formation of the earth. These natural radioactive materials are found in the ground, rocks and building materials. Some of the contributors to terrestrial sources are the natural radioactive elements radium, uranium and thorium. In fact, there are some areas in Brazil where the natural background radiation levels reach 3,000 mrem/year. The average dose from terrestrial sources in the United States is 28 mrem/year. Internal source; our bodies contain various, naturally occurring radioactive elements, and potassium (40K) is one of the major contributors to your internal dose. The average dose from internal sources in the United States is about 40 mrem/year. Man-Made Sources of Radiation Medical/dental sources; this includes diagnostic (such as chest or dental x-ray) and therapeutic uses of radiation (such as radiation therapy for tumors). Because medical and dental doses are so individualized, your dose may vary from a few millirem to several thousand mrem. The average dose from medical and dental sources in the United States is about 54 mrem/year. Consumer products; some consumer products contain small amounts of radioactive material. Examples include certain ceramic dishes (usually with an orange glaze), some luminous dial watches, and some smoke detectors. These consumer products account for a very minor contribution to the background dose. The average dose from consumer products in the United States is about 10 mrem/year. Other; this category includes radiation doses from fallout caused by bomb testing and accidents such as Chernobyl. The average dose from other sources in the United States is about 3 mrem/year. Overall, the average radiation dose to a member of the general population in the United States, from background and man-made sources is about 360 mrem/year, or about 25,000 mrem over the average lifetime. Airline flight crew members average ~1000mrem/yr, nuclear power workers 500 (which I think is high - I only had ~ 100mrem total exposure in the nuclear navy) Bottom line......radiation is all around us. With out saying what amount and type of radiation is emitting from the drywall, it does not mean much. |
