Warfles and gammas?

I recently read (on the auction site that must not be named) that WWII era Erfles sometimes had the same type of radioactive elements one often finds in aerial lenses of the same period.

Does anyone know anything about this? Do old war surplus Erfles (such as from Edmund, or Surplus Shed, etc.) also have these elements?

I've read that though the actual PARTICLE emission is relatively weak, decay creates isotopes which then release gamma rays, which will punch through just about anything (or anyone).

The last thing anyone needs is brain cancer from their favorite vintage ep's.

Jess Tauber

Seems there's a lot of talk out there about this...seems lots of the camera glass was, so EPs using old lenses from cameras could be a problem.

http://observers.org/tac.mailing.list/2000/August/0881.html

http://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q1356.html

http://www.hypermaths.org/quadibloc/science/opt04.htm

Jess:

I used to own an old military erfle and I remember hearing the same thing. When I researched it years ago I read it was a rare earth element that caused the problem. From what I remember, the way to identify these eyepeices (other than a geiger counter) is that this glass had a amber tint to it.

I seriously doubt any of the well known vendors of surplus erfles would be selling the radioactive ones.

Tom