Re: radium colour is harmful?

Hello Ketan!

Using radioacive pigments is nothing really new.  Fiestaware, a popular 
dishware maker here in North America used to use uranium salts to give 
their glassware a particular vibrant color.  Unfortunately, it also gave 
off quite a bit of radiation, so much so I can't recommend using it to eat 
off of.  Radium paints were used in World War II to mark the faces of 
watch and compass dials.  Unfortunately, the young ladies put the brushes 
in their mouths to get a fine point for the markers.  Years later down the 
line, many of them did develop cancers of the mouth and tongue.

There are a lot of variables that I don't know to give you a really good 
answer.  How high are your ceilings?  What is the paint composed of?  The 
Fiestaware was radioactive, but also contained lead, a toxic metal.  There 
is also a chance that the paint uses a non-radioactive form of radium, but 
I can't tell that without actually measuring it.  Also, where is the 
radium going to be used?  Is it in a room where you will be spending a lot 
of time?

Given the choices of paints available, I would not choose to paint any 
interior ceiling with the radium based paint.  There are plenty of other 
ways to get an image of stars, some using stick-on plastic stars the glow 
but don't contain any radioactive material.  Or, there may be other paint 
combinations available that don't use anything radioactive.

I'll have to err on the side of safety on this one, and say that the 
radium paint should be avoided.