HN Explorer

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dekken_
would a geiger counter have been useful here, and if not would anything?
sam_lowry_
About 94.6% of caesium-137 decays by beta emission, so any Geiger counter would have shown abnormally high readings.
gorby91
Would they not have been effectively blocked by the concrete wall the capsule was embedded in?
sam_lowry_
Depends on the position of the capsule in the wall. Also, this was in a 5-storey building, where load bearing walls are between 12 and 20cm.

If there was enough beta radiation to cause leukemia, there was enough for the Geiger counter.

eurasiantiger
Considering how common radiation sources are in Chinese gadgets (some even containing radioactive materials in loose powder form), a dosimeter or a geiger counter is mandatory safety equipment when moving house.
timcobb
What kind of gadgets?
eurasiantiger
All kinds of ”energy healing devices” from underpants with metal capsules sewn in the fabric to ball point pens with loose powder inside.
sigsergv
There are some amulet-like things that could be used for detector testings, they were freely available on aliexpress a few years ago. Also there are some radioactive "trithium" keychains that may contain absolutely anything but tritium.
crazygringo
Sorry, what?

What types of "gadgets" specifically? Why would there be radiation sources in them? Why would they be in powder form? And why from China specifically?

This is not any kind of common knowledge. Can you point to sources for this? Who considers this "mandatory safety equipment"?

RicoElectrico
"Negative ion generators". Check out Thought Emporium. He managed to have some of them banned.
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adhesive_wombat
Specifically the bizarre pseudoscience ones, not the electrical ones used to electrostatically remove particulates from air (and sometimes add ozone into the bargain).

If anything it's impressive that the purveyors of such bracelets and other things would go to the bother of including radioactive material in the first place. They could have just put some ground quartz (i.e. sand) in it and said it was "crystals". No one was going to check, and even if they did, and you couldn't fob then off by saying their test was invalid, like the Batteriser guy tried to do, what would they do about it? Leave you a bad review on Amazon before you rebrand as Engrokoo or something and pop up as a new name?

eurasiantiger
I understand it may seem confusing. These ”energy healing devices” are a very real danger when people unknowingly order them online and their kids take them apart.