A century ago , it was n’t strange to have at least one hazardously radioactive object in your rest home . Radium was used to make a long list ofeveryday item — including toys , hot chocolate , picket , and cosmetic — before the risks were understood . By the 1950s and ' sixty , it was plebeian noesis that radioactive stuff were n’t something you wanted to be exposed to on a day-by-day basis , and manufacturer ( forthe most part ) were no longer adding them to their goodness on intent . But radiotherapy did inadvertently show up in one of the hottest products of the age , and it was pumped into thousands of living room across America before the mistake was catch .
Testing in 1967 revealed that large - screen models of GE color televisions readiness were emittingradiationthat exceeded safe levels , according to a late story byThe Atlantic . After further probe it was clean that the problem was n’t limited to GE : Radiation was detected in color modelling made by virtually every tv set companionship at the meter , which meant as many as 112,000 sets were radioactive .
The radiation was thought to be linked to the eminent voltage required to power former coloring material televisions , and agree to wellness officials , it was about10 to 100,000 timeshigher than the satisfactory rate . In light of the alarming entropy , the surgeon general unloose a statement assuring consumers that the radiation level likely were n’t substantial enough to injure them — but there was a haul . Radiation escaped the tv at a crescent - determine slant that sloped downwards , think that people were relatively safe when they watched their sets at least six metrical unit away from the screen . But viewers who prefer laying on the rug beneath their set , or who put it on a high shelf , may have been rank themselves directly in the route of the radiotherapy leakage .
It ’s unclear what foresightful - condition health effects radioactive color TVs had on their owners — if any — but they definitely left an impact on our collective psyche . Even today , kids are lectured for sitting too close to the television set , and though the reasons parents give vary ( " itrots your brain , " " it ’ll hurt your eyesight " ) , their worry may have roots in the radiation panic attack of the late 1960s .
In 1968 , Congress pass the Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act , which activate the FDA to regulate radiation emission in electronics . Television manufacturers made people of colour sets safer by installing glass home plate to block superfluous radiation , and radioactive television soon disappeared from stores .
The FDA still regulates irradiation in electronics today , and as the technology acquire , the probability of getting a harmful X - ray blast from your idiot box set have greatly diminish . That mean the hazard ofbinge watchingare mostly limit to center strain , myopia , and the usual risk of infection that come with sitting still all day .
[ h / tThe Atlantic ]
