[Jewelry making - Article 00011] - Re: [Orchid] **U.S. Post and Gemstones! ***

[Heather Motto]

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>         Heard something interesting today, the U.S. Postal service is
>     going to start "Sanitizing" all parcels that go through their
>     system. This is an irradiation process!   Please be careful what
>     you send/ receive from the States, this process is harmful to some
>     goods.   

    Hi all, i have been "lurking" for quite awhile, but since i found the
    topic of the dangers of irradiating mail interesting, i thought i
    should comment when i recieved a good sorce of info. 

    I forwarded this post to my sister, a masters student in museum
    studies, to see if she has heard anything. The reply is long, and
    doesnt have much info specific to stones and minerals, but still very
    interesting.  I am going to read the full article tomorrow! 

    I have been following this rather closely.  Here is what the
    Smithsonian Institute has to say on the subject.  Its public info
    feel free to share it. This is legit not someone scared of
    "radition". Basically they are asking all museums to stop sending any
    collections and items through the mail. 

    The Smithsonian has posted a paper on its web site about the problems
    of sending museum specimens through the mail now that the Postal
    Service has decided to irradiate some of the mail. FYI, I've copied
    the summary of the paper below, and the full text is at this site:
    http://www.si.edu/scmre/mail_irradiation.html 

    Summarizing the information as it pertains to typical collection
    specimens exchanged by museums and research laboratories and
    transported by mail, the following concerns emerge. 

    Living specimens (seeds, cuttings, etc.) will be killed by this
    irradiation.  Materials of cellulosic composition, especially plant
    fibers and paper, will be quite seriously affected. They will loose
    significant tensile strength and will become more brittle, while the
    induced chemical changes, chain scission and oxidation, will
    accelerate their aging processes.Discoloration is also to be
    expected. 

    Oxidation also will result from interaction with ozone formed in air
    during the irradiation; while one may expect efficient ventilation at
    the radiation equipment, ozone also will be formed within the
    enclosures of the mailed materials, where the concentration could
    range in the tens of ppm. 

    Materials of proteinaceous composition, while less vulnerable than
    the cellulosic ones, still can be expected to be affected at the
    proposed dose levels in terms of physical changes (embrittlement of
    skin products, loss of fiber strength in wool and hair samples), and
    in terms of accelerated aging. Again, discolorations are to be
    expected. Again, ozone production is an additional factor. 

    Samples of interest because of their genetic information can be
    compromised, to an extent depending on the type of questions being
    addressed by the research in which they are to be used, because of
    large scale destruction of DNA molecules, accompanied by
    recombinations. 

    Dyestuffs will fade, resulting in fading and color shifts in
    textiles, stained specimens, and color photographs. The same effect
    may result in shifts and fading of the natural colors of specimens.
    Glass can undergo blue/purple discolorations; this may affect the
    research value of microscopic slide specimens. While this
    discoloration of the glass can be removed through annealing, this
    would not likely be a viable option for mounted specimens because of
    the effects of the heating on mounting medium and the specimens
    themselves. 

    Mineral specimens may develop colors and/or change colors; generally
    these effects are reversible through annealing, though of course the
    effects of that heating on the specimen depend on its nature. 

    In the case of specimens under alcohol, there is the potential for
    some radiolysis of the preservation solution, leading to the
    formation of various ions and free radicals in the solution. These
    reactions are very complex and can lead to a wide range of reaction
    products, but the concentrations of the latter should be in the ppm
    range and do not form a major concern. Additionally, the temperature
    raise resulting from thermalization of the electron beam energy would
    raise the pressure in the container somewhat,but this effect is not
    likely to be of sufficient magnitude to cause failures of the
    containers unless the integrity of the latter were already seriously
    compromised. 

    Rubber and plastic stoppers of bottles and vials may become somewhat
    embrittled, but not to an extent of losing the closure of the
    containers. 

    Magnetic media (floppy disks, zip disks, audio and video tape) will
    probably loose significant information content. Undeveloped
    photographic film will be exposed. Radiocarbon dates of irradiated
    samples will not be affected in a significant way, although there is a
    theoretical possibility for contamination as a result of chemical
    reactions that involve reactive groups from carbon containing
    packaging material. 

    Samples intended for thermoluminescence dating will become useless,
    since this irradiation will deposit a dose that exceeds the "natural"
    one by orders of magnitude. Since no nuclear reactions are induced
    under the proposed conditions, generation of radioactivity in the
    irradiated samples is not a concern. It is not practical to try to
    mitigate the radiation effects through shielding of the samples, e.g.
    with lead metal. The weight of the shielding required to stop these
    high energy electrons would be quite high and make the mailing
    expensive; moreover, the bremsstrahlung generated by interaction of
    the electrons with the high Z elements of the shielding could still
    result in appreciable doses to be administered to the material
    inside. USPS also  might have objections, not only since it presents
    an attempt to circumvent their preventive actions, but also since
    this bremsstrahlung could conceivably create other problems at the
    irradiation facility. 

    In view of the above it is strongly suggested that mailing through
    USPS of vulnerable specimens and collection items, as well as
    important research information on magnetic media or undeveloped
    film, be avoided unless it can be arranged for these mailings to be
    exempted from irradiation. 

Heather Motto
Delphinus Designs, Sterling Silver Jewelry
delphinus32 AT yahoo.com

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