Frank wrote:
dpb wrote:
Beachcomber wrote:
On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 07:32:25 GMT, CJT wrote:

....
In first part of the last century, the military used radium to make
glow-in-the-dark hands and numbers ...

I don't know what Wikipedia has, but while it is true there was a
problem with painting radium watch dials as described, the association
w/ the military is simply wrong. The usage was common and like many
things, the danger wasn't yet fully known/characterized, and general
standards weren't the same then as now.

"Luminous" and "fluorescent" aren't the same, either...

When I was a kid, you could buy shoes and check fit by putting feet in
x-ray machine. ...

Back then, stuff made in USA was far
worse than the worst stuff coming from China today. We're living in a
weenie world today

"Made in the USA" really had nothing to do with it -- it was simply what
was standard practice of the time and generally things were "better" in
that sense in the US than in many other places at the same time then as
well...

The typically hysterical reaction these days over the most minimal of
risks is, I'll agree, a "sign of the times".

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