Do you own one of those radioactive bowls?

Sadly no, and get a Geiger counter. There are fairly cheap ones but I went with a CDV-700 which cost $300 or so. Sadly I can’t find anything radioactive to use with it which is annoying as hell.

The fact if they are dangerous or not depends on how radioactive they are.

I do. I’ve been collecting them. Red-Orange Fiestaware from the 1950’s is the good bad stuff. One of the plates I have reads at over 150 times background radiation at a distance of 15 cm cm. Spectacular.
You can look up Fiestaware and study the signatures to learn the dates.

I look for them when I visit GoodWill and other thrift stores. If they are the right color I will buy them if I even suspect they’ll be hot. I test when I get home. If they’re not, I redonate them.

Are you talking about Vaseline/Depression glass that glows green under blacklight because of the uranium?
We have tons of it.

@cheebdragon I purchased and checked some of those and the radiation was minimal. The red-orange fiestaware was the interesting stuff.

I didn’t know that about fiesta ware, I do know that it wasn’t a big seller at the antique auction I worked at because I remember my boss complaining about it several different times because at first glance it could be confused with Baur sometimes and Baur was always highly sought after.

I’m actually selling this at the moment.

I have a dessert dish that loooks similar. It is shaped like a short Martini glass with thick stem.
The old fiestaware is actually a bit dangerous. Someone did a study that showed leaving one 7 inch plate in a closed 15 ft by 15 ft will produce enough radon gas to exceed the max federal limit by 7 times. It also releases gamma radiation as well as beta and alpha.

I quickly found an old article here I didn’t bother to find newer info after this one.

The stuff made before 1944 was the real good stuff, before the government took over the company’s stock of uranium. After that, they made the glaze from depleted uranium.

If you want to check out radon emissions, read about granite counter-tops. My boyfriend, for his masters degree, helped improve radon gas detection working in conjunction with the atomic energy agency (ANSTO) in Sydney, Australia.

@cazzie I have one of the older (hot) plates. It was cracked and glued back together when I bought it. They only charged me $2 because it was broken – not that it mattered to me. I probably could have gotten it for next to nothing.

This thread has inspired me to move the stuff out of the house and into the garage.

Edit: It’s all in the garage now near the gasoline. I feel healthier already. :-)