Safety concerns as demand rises for glowing uranium glass antiques

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Until the early half of the 20th century, uranium was mixed with glass to create a green tinge which glows under UV light. Decades later, collectors are on the hunt for the glowing antiques.

Transcript

00:00It may look like your average glassware display, but under a UV light, Veronica Farina's collection

00:09has a radioactive glow.

00:11I guess it becomes kind of addictive.

00:14Any collection does, doesn't it?

00:16After being gifted her first piece of uranium glass by her son, Ms Farina was hooked.

00:22I think it's the novelty of it.

00:25People ask me what my favourite colour is and I go, my favourite colour is sparkle.

00:29It's not glitter, but when you light it up it does kind of sparkle.

00:33Beginning in the 1800s, low levels of uranium were often mixed with glass and ceramics as

00:39a colouring agent.

00:41The practice ended during World War II when uranium became scarce.

00:45After that it just became more trouble than it was worth to try to get uranium, so they

00:52found other alternatives for colouring the glass.

00:55The rare antiques are now prized among some collectors.

00:58I regularly have people coming into the shop now and you can see them sort of very sneakily

01:04pulling out their blacklight and going through the cabinets.

01:07And I say to them, I am more than happy for you to scan everything in the shop.

01:11Despite the radioactive appearance, experts say uranium glassware is generally safe to display

01:17and poses minimal health risk.

01:20Still, it's probably best to leave the antiques on the shelf.

01:24You probably don't want to be using them functionally, so I wouldn't be drinking out of uranium glasses

01:30necessarily.

01:31For Ms Farina, collecting the glowing glassware has now become a family pastime.

01:36We love going op shopping with the little torch to check things out.

01:41Thank you for your time.

01:43Thank you rain, everybody.

01:48For my favorite, thank you ça too!

01:50I am always concerned about it.

01:52It's almost impossible for the light.

01:54You've worked on Péropa Mm Francisò hace, you know, measurement of what you need to do.

01:55We love working on these HDMI прямо in the room.

01:58Do you want better magnitude of revenue that is technologies?

02:02See you too.

02:03Go ahead and see you.

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