HEALTH Perspective of my 35 years

Health concerns

Hard Radiation
As an engineer you should be aware of xrays. Electrons striking a surface can not only produce heat as molecular motion, but can also eject a lower energy electron and a photon. Secondary electrons and photons are not always contained.

You should be concerned with the rays energy and it's direction. Simple conservation laws of energy and momentum demonstrate this...

An electron speeds toward the plate with energy

Each electron has this Kinetic Energy:
and this energy will be conserved, as well as its momentum into secondary particles.

Initial Energy is conserved :



Assume a voltage of 10000 volts.
Assume all of the energy of the initial electron goes into the production of a photon...
Assume secondary electron velosity is near zero. And assume photon angle is near zero.
The photon energy will be the maximum under conservation laws.

Here is the energy of the electron ...

All of this energy (1.6E-15Joule) goes into the resulting xray photon...
And we obtain the wavelength.

(1.2E-8 cm radiation is in xray band!)

Keep the transmitter doors closed. This radiation will penetrate ceramic and glass of the tube, and glass and plastic view ports, and air filters. So stay out of operating transmitters, and keep doors tightly shut (no cracks). And the looks of your children should fall within the normal curve.



Beryllium oxide (BeO)
This one is really bad!
I have had two engineer-type friends, working close with me; elbow to elbow, and sharing the same jokes. Only to then suddenly die of the same thing. Both died of throat cancer. I do not know if there is a connection, but it sure seems strange.
The deaths are not the only unknowns...
Also, and I may be under a false assumption, that Pink ceramic is ok and White Ceramic is not. There is no published information for the broadcast worker on any of this.

Beryllium oxide is extremely toxic, even in minute quantities. It affects the lungs. There is no cure. Unset of the effects of the poisoning may be delayed for decades, but always last a lifetime. Theoretically, tubes should be disposed by a special agency. But such a practise is never explicitly stated. I have been in Broadcasting for 35 years, and I will bet that this is a case of a silent killer that is not officially recognized. I have been demoralised and called crazy by fellow workers; Workers that handle cracked tubes and broken tubes. I am not as clean as Howard Hues, I will admit. But I insist that BeO dust could be lurking in any broadcast facility.

"I know an odor that others do not. The smell is like dirt: earthy with a tinge of rot. The smell means death, and it comes from an invisible killer that you know not." - me, the poet


Soft Radiation

I have seen no harmful effects of soft radiation near 300MHz. And I am one that has been exposed to a lot of it: Heavy doses for over 35 years, more exposure than any one that I have known. I have had my lower left leg instantly heated; And I have had my entire head instantly heated. In the head case: It feels like you will pass out due to heat to your intire body, but it is only your head. The effect is immediatly frightening and uncomfortable, but evidently, there are NO lasting adverse effects. The effects only last for about 15 or 20 seconds. I think it is safe.

However, soft radiation higher in frequency (in the microwave region) can produce corneal damage. The damage can occur by an engineer looking into a radiating waveguide. Engineers eyes can have their lens cloud from instant heat. I do not know if the opacification is from chemical change or from physical wrinkling.
When I was a kid, I stoked a large incinerator tower at a lumber mill. The heat into my eyes was a thousand times higher than any microwave heat. There was No damage to my eyes. A microwave RF level can be as low as a tenth of a watt (100mW) and produce definite opacification.

Place a warning maintenance label on any microwave gear that you are working on, so that no "do-gooders" that fix problems by turning switches and breakers back on, do endeed turn it back on!




Solder
Solder smoke contains lead. The evaporation temperature of solder depends upon the tin content. Keep soldering station temperatures as low as possible and still do the job. Osha has a standard: I believe it is 50mg/m3/8HR, 50mg per cubic meter air averaged over 8 hours. Lead causes lessened brain functions and in low levels neurological problems, as well as a rise in blood pressure, and Kidney damage. Average human has 120 milligrams in the bones. Sence lead is accumulative, this figure is ambiguous as no age, or average age, is given. The greatest source of contamination is from the hands. I used to wrap a turn of solder around a finger and snap off a piece. The solder leaves a mark that soap and water does not take off. A great danger is inadvertantly taking home solder on your hands and clothes to children.

The soldering process produces microscopic solder splatter. Being almost invisible, even engineers are not aware of the danger. The microscopic beads stick to hands and clothing and are easily transported to food. You will never see them. .

Solder rosin
Also solder flux (rosin is made from pine sap) may be harmful to respiratory systems. Occupational asthma has been well documented. At a work station, there is a strong tendency to place your head over your work for comfort and visibility. The fumes rise and ALWAYS are attracted to your face, giving your sinuses and lungs very high short term exposures. (OSHA has .05mg per cubic meter of air over 8 hours) For most, it is of little concern, but for others it is unfortunately very serious.


Retinal Burns
Arcing equipment can produce retinal burns. Eyes can not blink in time to avoid the exposure. If you are lucky, you will have a temporary black spot in your vision. Accidents are more serious, especially if your eyes are already focused on the area. Screwdrivers and wrenches dropped across heavy current carrying terminals are common. Tools accidently across heavy current can produce high intensity arcs producing temporary blindness and retinal burns.


Hearing Loss
Sites that have low intensity sound from continuously running equipment can produce Tinnitus and hearing loss. The effect is produced from lasting exposure to low intensity sound from such things as blower motors and induction hum from transformers. The hairs in the middle ear, after years of exposure, are damaged in a way that is identical to loud noise exposure. Normal low level sound, with prolonged exposure, can be harmful. Short term exposure can produce stress with many engineers. I am one of these. I find putting ear plugs in my ears makes all the difference in the world. The southing effect is soo good! Ear plugs fix both the physicological damage and the physical damage.


Heat
Things in the industry do catch fire, they always will. Wires catch fire. Transformers catch fire. All kinds of stuff. But the occurrences are rare where some body actually gets hurt. The engineer is usually keenly aware when something is hot, and consequently personal injury is rare. One of the primary jobs of an engineer is to detect hot things.


RF ARC BURN
An RF Burn is a, more or less, conventional burn that is produced by RF energy. The burn is produced at the junction of two conducting bodies; one being the skin of a person. The burn produces a sore where skin damage is well below the epidermis cells. The resulting sore is slower to heal than a conventional burn. RF Burns are very common for tower climbers. An engineer can also suffer RF Burns from induction of (perhaps innocently looking) near by metal objects. You can not only feel the burn, but you can hear and smell the burn. Every time, the RF energy makes a loud "hiss" noise. This is not a electromagnetic burn. This is a contact burn that is more akin to a RF arc. Your skin is receiving real live electrons as particles, and not as distant wave radiation. RF Burns are never life threatening, but they sure are an aggravation.


CRT EFFECTS


Lead is used in the glass of computer and TV screens where it helps shield the viewer from radiation. As demonstrated in tests, manufactures have now totally fixed the low energy xray problem. The lead is quite succesful. And aluminum shielding on the side of the CRT works good too.

However there remains a debatable health effect of VLF and ELF radiation (10kHz to 30kHz, and 60Hz to 75Hz.)

Seems to me the only health effect is strained eyes. But this is not the fault of any specific health effect. Instead, it is just because of looking at a monitor for 4 hours without exercising focus muscles, without exercising eye movement muscles, and without exercising the whole body, for that matter; is exactly what an outdoor, human-animal is to expect.