How Radioactive Is Fiesta Ware

Old Fiesta dinnerware was made using radioactive glazes. While the red pottery is noted for its especially high radioactivity, other colors emit radiation. Also, other pottery from the era was glazed using similar recipes, so just about any pottery from the early to mid 20th century  may be radioactive. The dishes are highly collectible, both because of their vivid colors (and because the radioactivity is cool.) But is it really safe to eat off these dishes or are they best thought of as decorative pieces to be admired from afar?  Heres a look at just how radioactive the dishes are today and the risks of using them for serving food. Whats In Fiesta Thats Radioactive? Some of the glazes used in Fiesta Ware contain uranium oxide. Although several colors of glazes contain the ingredient, the red dinnerware is best known for its radioactivity. The uranium emits alpha particles and neutrons. Although the alpha particles dont have much penetrating power, the uranium oxide could leach from the dinnerware, particularly if a dish was cracked (which also would release toxic lead) or the food was highly acidic (like spaghetti sauce). The half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, so you can rest assured pretty much all of the original uranium oxide remains in the dishes. Uranium decays into thorium-234, which emits beta and gamma radiation. The thorium isotope has a half-life of 24.1 days. Continuing the decay scheme, the dishes would be expected to contain some protactinium-234, which emits beta and gamma radiation, and uranium-234, which emits alpha and gamma radiation. Just How Radioactive Is Fiesta Ware? There is no evidence that the people who made these dishes suffered any ill effects from exposure to the glazes, so you probably dont have a lot to worry about by just being around the dishes. That being said, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who measured radiation from the dishes  found that a standard 7 radioactive red plate (not its official Fiesta name) will expose you to gamma radiation if youre in the same room as the plate, beta radiation if you touch the plate, and alpha radiation if you eat acidic foods off the plate. The exact radioactivity is difficult to measure since so many factors play into your exposure, but youre looking at 3-10 mR/hr. The estimated daily human limit rate is only 2 mR/hr. In case youve wondered just how much uranium that is, researchers estimate a single red plate contains approximately 4.5 grams of uranium or 20% uranium, by weight. If you eat off the radioactive dinnerware  daily, you would be looking at ingesting around  0.21 gram s of uranium per year. Using a red ceramic teacup daily would give you an estimated  annual radiation dose of 400 mrem to your lips and 1200 mrem to the fingers, not counting the radiation from ingesting uranium. Basically, youre not doing yourself any favors eating off the dishes and you certainly dont want to sleep with one under your pillow. Ingestion of uranium could increase the risk of tumors or cancer, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract. However, Fiesta and other dishes are a lot less radioactive than many other items produced during the same era. Which Fiesta Ware Is Radioactive? Fiesta commenced commercial sales of colored dinnerware in 1936.  Most colored  ceramics made prior to World War II, including Fiesta Ware, contained uranium oxide. In 1943, manufacturers stopped using the ingredient because the uranium was used for weapons.  Homer Laughlin, the maker of Fiesta, resumed using the  red glaze in the 1950s, using depleted uranium. The use of depleted uranium oxide ceased in 1972. Fiesta Ware manufactured after this date is not radioactive. Fiesta dinnerware made from 1936-1972 may be radioactive. You can buy modern Fiesta ceramic dishes in just about any color of the rainbow, though the modern colors wont match the old colors. None of the dishes contain lead or uranium. None of the modern dishes are radioactive. Sources Buckley et al. Environmental Assessment of Consumer Products Containing Radioactive Material. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NUREG/CR-1775. 1980. Landa, E. and Councell, T. Leaching of Uranium from Glass and Ceramic Foodware and Decorative Items. Health Physics 63 (3): 343-348; 1992. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement.  Ã‚  Radiation Exposure of the  U.S.  Population from Consumer Products and Miscellaneous Sources.  Ã‚  NCRP Report N0. 95. 1987. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Ã‚  Systematic Radiological Assessment of Exemptions for Source and Byproduct Materials. NUREG 1717. June 2001 Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Fiesta Ware (ca. the 1930s). Retrieved April 23, 2014. Piesch, E, Burgkhardt, B, and Acton, R. Dose Rate Measurements in the Beta-Photon Radiation Field from UO2 Pellets and Glazed Ceramics Containing Uranium. Radiation Protection Dosimetry 14 (2): 109-112; 1986. Vaughn Aubuchon (2006).  Geiger Counter Comparison - Popular Models.  Retrieved April 23, 2014.

Ap Us History Dbq Essay - 786 Words

After the American Revolution, Americans, who had just broken free from the British, completely changed their politics, economy and society. The Founders decided to change how they wanted to run their society, even though, in the end, they went back to a more powerful federal government like Britain. Most people’s daily lives didn’t change much but the principles from the revolution made some try to look for better financial opportunities. Women, slaves, and loyalists were changed a lot in society. Women had more freedoms, some of the slaves were set free, and many loyalists left America. America did not go through much economic change, but it did experience social and political change. Since they had just fought a war to gain their†¦show more content†¦Similarly, in Shay’s Rebellion, Yeoman farmers in Massachusetts, according to Abigail Adams’ letter to Thomas Jefferson, â€Å"were crying out for a paper currency, some for an equal distribution of property† (Doc G). Shay’s Rebellion symbolizes the economic troubles that the poor had to deal with. The social change was the biggest change that happened in America. After the Revolution, the place of women, slaves, and loyalists in society was greatly altered. In order to teach justice and liberty to their children, women were educated in the ideals of Republican Motherhood. In a woodcut of a patriot woman made in 1779, a woman is shown with a rifle and gunpowder horn (Doc A). Some women did play bigger roles in society by going with the fighting soldiers and sometimes even fighting with them in the revolution. However, not all women were satisfied to just go back to the earlier place in society they were at before the war as shown by Molly Wallace who said during her valedictory address in 1792, â€Å"if [taught] to read, why not to speak?† (Doc J). Many American women, like Wallace, sought after advancing their roles in society. But sadly, women suffrage didn’t happen for 140 years. For slaves in some regions, there was a lot of social change. In the years after the revolution, the slave owners in the North practiced manumission, and freed many slaves there. In the South, however, it would take many more years and a Civil War for the slaves to gain their freedom.Show MoreRelatedAp Us History Dbq Essay730 Words   |  3 PagesBesides all the other growing issues from 1700-1800 in American History, there was one rising above all. The enslavement of the African people. While there was much debate about freedom, abolition, and all other things some African-Americans managed to find theirs. 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How I Stumbled Across Universal Literacy Free Essays

I acquired, through being part of many discourses that, eventually, everything connects. I had always heard the same thing, â€Å"Graduate from a good college and find a cent living, and you’ll be happy and successful. † Ha! What a capitalistic, factory- produced, fairy tale to tell impressionable children, I thought. We will write a custom essay sample on How I Stumbled Across Universal Literacy or any similar topic only for you Order Now Nope, I was smarter than that. I would be the one to take the road less traveled†to go against the grain and live my own life the way I wanted to. After barely graduating high school with a GEED (or a GEED equivalent actually†¦ ), I took off to LA to become a music-producer. I was going to be big. I learned the trade, worked inside multi- million dollar studios, and formed a band. I had It all figured out and I was going to how everybody that school was for fools. As with everything In life. This Intoxicating success did not last. I began to feel something was missing. Here I was, living the dream that I had imagined for myself, and yet, I didn’t feel much fulfillment. Bills were stacking, the girlfriend was becoming distant, and the excitement of living on my own slowly began to degrade with each passing day. Soon, I could no longer make enough to afford living on my own. And so, I packed up and return home to the Bay Area. Life had defeated me, or so It felt, and I had to reevaluate what I wanted to do with mine. That’s when the unexpected happened: I started going back to school again. I began taking courses seriously and I learned that, not only was I pretty good at most of the stuff, I really liked it. I found that an obscure subject like calculus, could be applied to something even more obscure like computer programming. I learned lessons in swimming that helped me learn how to socialize. Hell, if I took an extensive course on rock-paper-scissors, I could find a hidden lesson that could ring true In another study. I guess you could say I slowly realized how to learn, rather than what to learn. After all, James Paul Gee writes in his paper, Ð’Â «owing† is a matter of â€Å"knowing how to proceed† (â€Å"go on†) in specific social interactions† (Discourse and Coloratura Studies in Reading, 196). Once I realized that I had a plethora of knowledge and life-experiences up my sleeve already, navigating through new areas in life began to be much more comfortable and rewarding. An unexpected part of life had showed up In my life as well: religion. If you had the reasons wrong with the Bible and how there couldn’t possibly be a God. Openness eased my stubbornness. I wanted to â€Å"hear out† what all these people in Christianity had to say. As I attended sermons, I checked all Judgments at the door and listened. I remember the words of a wise teacher I had in high school. He told us to empty our cups†to be ready to fill it with more knowledge. I found that what they preached in church was certainly applicable to somebody not religious at all. Instead of seeing the religion as a brain-washing cult, I began to understand it as a form of volunteer-work. These people were here for help, or to help. How could I speak negatively anymore about something that humans should be doing for each other? I kicked up a sense of humbleness from immersing myself in religious-discourse. It was not only Christianity that I researched. I started pouring my curiosities into Buddhism, Shamanism, and Islam. In all these religions, they teach a similar purpose: healing. Heal yourself, heal others, and heal the Universe. Within you, without you. We are all one, yet amazingly unique. All these â€Å"Faceable†-queues pseudo babble started to make sense to me! Trying new ideas had given me a fulfillment that I Just could not describe. I felt like a scientist, and that my field of study had now been shifted to understanding life. The doors that academic and religious discourse opened for me was like staring into a hallway that had even more interesting and unique doors to be opened. That would never have been available to me had I not looked in their direction and remained open. James Paul Gee puts it very elegantly, â€Å"Analogously, one can deepen the insight by taking successively deeper views of what interpretation means† (Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, 540). At times, I can still feel dejected, depressed, or Just plain lazy; after having been through these types of situations before, some many times worse, I learned that eventually, everything will urn out okay again†it has to. Physics proves this, religion speaks of this, and there are sayings I’m sure you’ve heard before like, â€Å"the dawn is darkest before the day. Recognizing this helps me deal with the inevitable problems that we all share, and how to stress out in a healthy way. A big part of life for me is music. I would not have traveled to LA with such reckless abandon, were it not for the passion and fuel that music provides me. I identified heavily with the punk-(counter)culture during my teenage years. I still do, but again, with a fresh perspective on t he community. Punks look intimidating to a lot of people. They have messy hair, spikes in every direction on their clothing, and a penchant for destroying things. The irony is, these very people are often the ones who are insecure, bold, and most understanding. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, and some punks are Just dicks, but being surrounded by a culture of misfits where the majority of members inside felt they were not right for the â€Å"mainstream discourse†, led me to take a look at the way things were established. I saw a lot of paranoia in the community, and I had to face my own. Let me explain. Paranoia, on one end of the spectrum, can lead people to believe things like, in 1969, America staged the whole moon landing. Or that the Pope is really a lizard. But on the other end of the spectrum, complete naivetà ©Ã‚ © can lead people to believe that banks have your best interest in mind, or that marijuana causes death. Somewhere in between them is an inner-balance much like the yin and yang in Buddhism. I learned that I revealed when the people spreading an idea can learn to communicate well enough without offending another’s ideas. We must listen to others as well, and learn to be dead to change our own ideas. How can we do this? How can I be sure that the color red looks the same to me, as it does to you? And more importantly, how can we find a .. That reading and writing cannot be separated from consensus? Gee argues, † speaking, listening, and interacting† (Reading as Situated Language: A Cognitively Perspective, 714). He makes a rather elegant point here in that it is not a matter of â€Å"street smarts† vs†¦ â€Å"Book smarts†, rather, it is a marriage of the two that is necessary for communication. â€Å"Eventually, everything connects† was said by Charles Names, a designer. An app on the phone called, â€Å"Dots, A Game About Connecting†, displays his quote prominently. Each time I play this game, I think about the many ways to accomplish one simple goal: connect the dots. There are ups and downs, lefts and rights. But there are also boxes and zigzags. The more unique ways you find to connect the dots, the easier and more fun the game becomes. Learning many tools from hands-on life- experiences greatly increases the fulfillment I feel for them. They boost my confidence, encourage me to eat healthier, to do well in school, and to live happier with family. You can say Vie stopped rebelling like I used to, and to that, I would have to agree. But I’m also rebelling against ignorance. I’m rebelling against preconceived molds society can place on us, and I’m rebelling against egoism. It’s a never-ending pursuit, but it’s much more preferable to never pursuing. James Paul Gee says, † . .The master discourse is not Just the sum of its parts, it is something also over and above them† (Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, 537). Perhaps once we’ve connected all the dots, we are still not done. We may never be done, and to me, that is an exciting thought. How to cite How I Stumbled Across Universal Literacy, Papers