Vintage radioactive wrist watches - Is Radium really nasty?

[walter b]

(01-21-2015 09:02 PM)jebem Wrote:  However my watch hands Radium radiation source still is nearby, about 60cm away (...) from my workbench, stored in a plastic bag inside a glass bottle inside a plastic case inside a paper bag in a wooden drawer.
I guess the Gamma particles just pass thru all these materials like my knife cutting butter at breakfast, increasing the background radiation level readings a bit :)

For sure. The only common material really working as a gamma shield is lead (Pb). Plastic and wood are mainly carbon - they don't shield gamma.

d:-/