I know that a lot of materials have background radiation. Could this also be the case? That the tiles were made from some clay/stones that are naturally radioactive?
"Uranium tiles have been used in the ceramics industry for many centuries, as uranium oxide makes an excellent ceramic glaze, and is reasonably abundant
Vibrant colors of orange, ... during that period (circa 1920–1940) used bathroom or kitchen tiles that had been glazed with uranium. These can now be detected by a Geiger counter"
Apparently not dangerous, if you don't lick it, or grind it up and inhale dust, etc.
Dang, can you please mark this thread as duplicate? I see that newer post with same topic is No1 on HN so it would make sense to merge this post into https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34691489.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 28.8 ms ] threadEDIT: fixed typo
"Uranium tiles have been used in the ceramics industry for many centuries, as uranium oxide makes an excellent ceramic glaze, and is reasonably abundant
Vibrant colors of orange, ... during that period (circa 1920–1940) used bathroom or kitchen tiles that had been glazed with uranium. These can now be detected by a Geiger counter"
Apparently not dangerous, if you don't lick it, or grind it up and inhale dust, etc.