X_Ray

[DannyMeazell]

Hi I am new here and would like to become a valued part of your online community. My goal is to learn from you as well as contribute. My field of experteise is Diamonds. I am a GIA certified Diamond expert. I was a gold buyer for years and when gold dropped from 800 to -400 an ounce in the early 80s I had to get out. As we all know that has changed and I am back. Eventually I hope to become a refiner too. I ask you in advance to please excuse my spelling.
That being said I have I had a issues with a lifelong friends death. He was like an uncle to me. He worked for years as a fireman ,but he worked for years on the side, recovering metal (Silver) from the medical industry specifacally hospitals. He had a contract to dispose of their used sulitions and did reclimation on it. Specifacally X-Ray meterials because of the high silver content. He died from cancer. My question is this. I understand that silver soulations used in X-Ray processing can retain radaition even when refined. Is this true? There are several of us that belive this contribuited to his untimely and sudden demise. He showed me the silver he had collected once in a large hidden closet. He had poured a special foundation and what he showed me were 250 Ounce bars that covered about a 3'x3'x3'x3' foot solid stack of these bars. Could what we fear be true?
Its funny but as he was getting ready to retire within a couple weeks he hit a $998,928.00 dollar progressive slot machine jackpot at the casinos. I come from a big family of fishermen and he was a part of that. My Dad and uncle told me in front of him one time "Yea Willie, since he won that jackpot we figured he would buy the minnows for a change. We go to the little bait shop where we trade and he tries to give them a hundred dollar bill. The bait shop owner says heck you know i don't keep enough change to break a hundred dollar bill! So we still have to buy the minnows!" :lol:
Danny

 

[jeneje]

Hi I am new here and would like to become a valued part of your online community. I ask you in advance to please excuse my spelling.
That being said I have I had a issues with a lifelong friends death. He was like an uncle to me. He worked for years as a fireman but he worked for years on the side recovering metal (Silver) from the medical industry. Specifacally X-Ray labs. He died from cancer. My question is this. I understand that silver soulations used in X-Ray processing can retain radaition even when refined. Is this true? There are several of us that belive this contribuited to his untimely demise. He showed me the silver he had collected once in a large hidden closet. He had poured a special foundation and what he showed me were 250 Ounce bars that covered about a 3'x3'x3'x3' foof solid stack of these bars. Could what we fear be true?
Danny

Sorry to hear about your friend, Is it possiable maybe, I would have the bars checked to see.
Ken

 

[Surplusmaster]

I do not think so because most medical diagnostic x- ray machines do not have radioactive materials in them. They produce the x-rays by accelerating non radioactive particles in a vacuum to hit a metal target that then creates the x-rays.
If the film were to become radioactive during this type of x-ray exposure I think we would know about it by now.

However LOTS of hospital treatment equipment has extremely radioactive
Material inside like Cobalt-60 and cesium-137.
Contact with even a particle of these materials can kill you.
The hospital system has been pretty lax with this type of equipment when it becomes obsolete so it can end up in the scrapyard.
There is a case where one of these machines ended up in a Mexican junkyard
and it was scrapped by a local junker family, a lot of them died, but it was weeks later when they made the connection to the junked hospital machine.
By that time the junkyard had processed the load (with the radioactive material) and it had been reshipped to a factory where they made metal kitchen table legs.

Here is link to some solid information about radiation.
http://www.launchdate.com/temp/ionize.htm

 

[publius]

There are some compounds of silver (and other metals) that may be carcinogenic.

The bombardment of the tungsten anode by electrons does not and cannot make the film or anything else radioactive. Nor can exposure to U-236, Co-60, Ir-182, Ce-137 or even Americium-what ever. The only way to cause something to become radioactive is exposure to the neutron flux of an active nuclear reactor.

This tail is a lesson about keeping ever vigilant of our safety, in our quest to recover and purify precious metals.

 

[DannyMeazell]

I think mostly what he recovered silver from was the chemicals used for developing. Obviously with the amount of yield he had he had been doing it a long time. Actually in hindsight I wish I had questioned him more, because this is something I might have been interested in doing myself. I certainly know that one does not have to be exposed to anything to develop cancer and I am positive that are a lot of things causing it we do not even know about. Case in point. In my youth I was a noted jeweler. I had an acquaintance who owned Bell Refiners in Phoenix who was a legend in the gold refining business. We became good friends in a business relationship. I used to ride my bicycle across Sun Valley to pick up gold supplies to make jewelry. Because I rode so far he said he would never forget me. I hadn't heard from him in several years and I called him yesterday. His wife returned my message and said before I put him on the phone you need to know he has prostrate cancer and he may not know you. He didn't which is really sad to me.
Thanks everyone for your valuable input. It does make me feel a little better. I am off to buy gold!!!