thorium exposure from lantern mantle

D

dougcorn

Registered Senior Member
hi, on vacation and totally bummed out...i was setting up a propane lantern and accidently did the pre mantle burn indoors....have been reading about exposure to the thorium that is on the mantles...am i going to get cancer from the smoke associated with this?
 
Chances are, it was a mantle made of nonradioactive yttrium. They haven't made the thorium type in a couple of decades.
 
Unless you made a point of ingesting the mantle material on a regular basis, the limited exposure you have been subject to should not be of too great a concern.

Safety of thorium

Since thorium is radioactive and produces a radioactive gas, radon-220, as one of its decay products, there are concerns about the safety of thorium mantles. Some nuclear safety agencies make recommendations about their use [1]. A study in 1981 estimated that the dose from using a thorium mantle every weekend for a year would be 0.3-0.6 millirems, tiny in comparison to the normal annual dose of a few hundred millirems, although a person ingesting an entire mantle would receive a comparable dose of 200 mrem (2 mSv; [2], [3]). However, the radioactivity is a major concern for those people involved with the manufacture of mantles and with contamination of soil around some former factory sites [4]. All of these issues have meant that alternatives, usually yttrium or sometimes zirconium, are used in some countries although they are either more expensive or less efficient.

One potential cause for concern is that particles from thorium gas mantles "fall out" over time and get into the air, where they may be ingested in food or drink. These particles can also be inhaled and remain in the lungs or liver. Also of concern is the release of thorium bearing dust if the mantle shatters due to mechanical impact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle
Click to expand...
 
I would suggest buying an LED lantern and giving the antique one away. That is what I did, and haven't looked back. :)
 
@Stoniphi
By Lantern, do you mean a TV set?

I've still got my old CRT Lantern.
I'd like to buy one of those new flat screen things, but my old TV won't break down, uses less electricity, and has a perfect picture. (Sony)
Replacing it would be stupid, wouldn't it?????

@Dougcorn
If you continually worry about things like this you may be suffering from some variety of clinical anxiety.

Otherwise, forget it.
You've got to die from something.
And in this case, you 99.999% chance won't.

added later.
If you are suffering from anxiety, that is something to be worried about.
 
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For Captain Kremmen:

11310752_Kerosene_Pressure_Lantern.jpg

Lantern
 
. . .yes, throium, if present in the lantern mantle vapors, poses a 'miniscule' risk of being a carcinogen (via alpha-particle interaction with cellular tissues - breaks the weak hydrogen bonds in RNA/DNA components) . However . . . . the risk is somewhat akin to the risk from radon (natural) inhalation . . . anticipate any resulting 'cancer' to develop over a period of 20 - 30 years. In other words, something else will 'get you' long before the throrium exposure does. Besides. the body has a unique ability to 'repair' cellular damage . . . incidental cellular damage rarely develops to a cancerous outcome.
 
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