THE HIDDEN DANGER OF MANTLE LAMPS

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The difference between alpha and beta particles is an important one for lantern users to understand. Both types of emissions are referred to as short-range radiation: Alpha particles are large and slowmoving, and can easily be stopped by such a barrier as a piece of paper or the glass chimney of a lantern . . . while beta particles are smaller and faster, and can penetrate body tissue. Either type can pose a health risk to the body if its emitters (in this particular case, thorium and radium) are inhaled or ingested . . . with the alpha particle being the more dangerous.

Inside the body, you see, "alphas" often travel a distance equal only to a cell's diameter, concentrating their effect in one tiny location. Therefore, alpha energy can overwhelm a cell's chemistry, possibly targeting the stricken spot for a future cancer, or altering the cells genetic matter. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Refer to the Medical Self-Care column "Are Cigarettes Radioactive?" (issue 74) for a discussion 'of the health effects of lowlevel radiation. To order back issues, turn to page 48.1

The manufacturers of lanterns and mantles (Coleman and Aladdin are the largest of such firms) are well aware of thorium's radioactive properties, since they must be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to possess and process the material and, furthermore, are required to label bulk shipments of the mantles as "radioactive" during transport. However, the companies have rejected any suggestion that they put warning labels on individual mantle packages, maintaining that the level of radiotoxicity is "insignificant".

The industry position is based, in part, on a 1979 study by Milo Voss—a health physicist from Ames, Iowa—which characterized the alpha-emitting nature of thorium as relatively harmless unless the particles are ingested or inhaled. Even if the risk is that limited, though, there's a strong likelihood that an unsuspecting individual could breathe in airborne radioactivity, without being aware of it, while lighting a mantle.

CONSUMER ACTION

Until recently, only a few people were informed of the health risks posed by mantle lamps. Some mention of the issue had been made in several California newspapers, but no widespread attention had been drawn to the problem.

In fact, if it hadn't been for Walter Wagner, a health physicist employed by the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco, the entire matter might have escaped large-scale public notice. As it happened, though, Wagner toured the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant near Sacramento, California in October 1980 . . . and—during his visit—a health physicist employed there pulled out a lantern mantle. The man never explained why he was carrying that small cloth pocket at a nuclear electricity-generating plant, but—in retrospect—Wagner suspects that the physicist may have been trying to point out that nuclear plant employees aren't the only ones exposing the public to radioactivity.

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