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STRONTIUM 90 IN WATCHES

“Possible Health Hazard*’

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, December 17.

Some wrist watches manufactured by a Swiss firm had been found to contain radioactive strontium 90. the Atomic Energy Commission said today.

The strontium 90, which can cause leukemia, was in the luminescent material on markings and numerals.

The quantities were “sufficient to present a possibjy longterm health hazard to the wearer,” the A.E.C. statement said.

The watches were made by Montres Rolex, SA., of Geneva. Switzerland, and more than 600 of them were distributed in the United States by the American Rolex Watch Corporation. “It is a special type of navigation watch which has a movable rim, or be?el. around the face or dial to permit the wearer to tell the time in any two time zones of the world at a given moment,” the A.E.C. said.

"The watch may be further identified by the name ‘Oyster Perpetual’ on its face.” The commission said the investigation opened with the discovery that one Rolex “G.M.T. Master” watch, purchased by an American in Singapore in September, 1958, contained strontium 90 in the luminescent material “substantially in excess” of the amounts exempt from licensing undir United States regulatidns.

During a later check of the firm’s inventory, the commission found several more rims containing similar quantities of strontium 90.

Some of the watches imported into the United States were found not to contain the radioactive material, but a check was necessary on all, it said. The A.E.C. said the extent of health hazard from a watch similar to those found to contain the radioactive material depended upon the personal habits of the wearer.

“It is unlikely,” the commission’s statement said, “that an individual would habitually expose a specific portion of the body to the radiation from the face of a wrist watch. “Nevertheless, the 'levels of radiation from the faces of these watches are sufficiently high that several years of more or less continuous exposure of the skin, or several months of exposure of an eye, could produce serious damage.”

Eleven Rolex “G.M.T. Master” watches have been distributed in New Zealand, according to the New Zealand agents, H. Bolton and Company, Ltd., Auckland, says a Press Association message from Hastings. Nine of the models have been sold in Auckland, one in Kaitaia, and one in New Plymouth, said Mr A. L. Bolton, junior partner of the firm, in a telephone interview today. “There’s not the slightest danger about them . . . indeed my dad (Mr H. Bolton, the senior partner) is wearing one now,” said Mr Bolton. “We have been assured by the manufacturers that the quantity of radioactivity material in the use of the paint on the luminated dials is a long way below the acknowledged danger point.”

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19591219.2.216

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29082, 19 December 1959, Page 19

Word Count
457

STRONTIUM 90 IN WATCHES Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29082, 19 December 1959, Page 19

STRONTIUM 90 IN WATCHES Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29082, 19 December 1959, Page 19

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