Question for all: (Charles, I know you’ll know this), An Italian
friend of mine was recently given a strand of cobalt
treated,“irradiated” pearls. When she told her family in Itay,
they were aghast. Insisted she get them out of the very house.
Turns out the Italian government has declared these types of
treated pearls to be lethal, and have banned them from the
country entirely, even going so far as to request that the little
deadlies be turned in so that the government could safely
destroy them. I use these pearls in my work, and I haven’t yet
noticed any extra appendages forming. Is it possible for the
pearls to retain any “radiation”,(I feel like an idiot even
broaching this possibility), or has the Italian government found
a nifty way to turn a quick profit? By the by, in researching
this I found a fabulous glossary/dictionary at:
http://jewelry.com/jewelrydictionary.html Definitions for
almost everything. Including Blue John. Thanks everyone, what
would I do without you? Lisa,(rescued 3 two week old kittens, am
bottle feeding every 4 hours. Its a good thing they’re so cute,
otherwise…) Topanga, CA USA
There are several ways in which gems are irradiated. These
include charged partials, neutrons, and gamma rays. Radiation
from cobalt-60 is a powerful gamma ray. When it is turned off,
there is no residual radiation. Charged particles and neutrons
can result in a LOT of residual radiation.
In other words the pearls are safe if cobalt-60 is used for
irradiation.
TOM (OWL1)
@Thomas_Roginski