Is the radioactive slate in a pool table harmful to your health, and can I haul it without Hazmat endorsement?

Question

About a year ago I was asked to deliver a wooden crate that had pooltable slate in it. By pure chance I found that it was irradiated. Now I am being asked to deliver the same type slate. I refused, however, now I am being harrassed and my job may be in jeapordy. Are my fears correct? Is this stuff harmful? Is it legal for me to haul it without hazmat endorsements? I hope someone out there has a good answer. Thanks

Answer 1

My first question would be how did the slate get irradiated. At this point I will assume that the slate was mined from an area where they were mining uranium or some other high radiation level isotope. If that is the case then there should have been radiation surveys and contamination surveys done at the mining site and radiological controls enforced if their were enough radioactivity detected to pose a threat to the general public. Generally the law allows the general public exposure to be 500 millirem per year while a trained radiation worker is allowed as much as 5 REM per year and higher limits apply when combating a radiological casualty. If you are going to worry about the pool table slate (unless you have survey data showing radiation levels higher than allowed by law) you would need to worry about medical contrasting solutions, iodine 131, some cobalt isotopes, and many naturally occurring isotopes you encounter in your every day life. Most smoke detectors have a radio-isotope in them, lantern mantels have a radioactive component etc. and that's not mentioning the x-ray radiation from routine medical examination. Bottom line, deliver the slate and keep your job and if you feel that you are being put at risk contact your local fire department about their hazmat response team and see if they can check the slate with a radiac to check for alpha, beta, gama or neutron radiation.

Answer 2

Slate is a stone formed by natural geologic compression of softer shales, which are comprised chiefly of clay minerals. The common clay minerals contain rather a lot of the element Potassium, which often occurs in an isotopic form which is very mildly "radioactive" - it emits a wee bit of gamma radiation.
Don't worry about it - you get more radiation exposure in an airplane at 40K' than in a truck full of pool tables.

Answer 3

It's perfectly safe- there's no harmful radiation in that slate- you won't turn into one of the Fantastic Four or anything.

Answer 4

I don't think a tiny bit of natural background radiation is going to hurt you.

Answer 5

Maybe you should look up what "irradiated" means.

You might be relieved to find out :)