Mystery Dust Glows in Dark
MYSTERY DUST SHINES LIKE A FULL MOON!
A “live-a-board” boater on the Grand Union, UK, found that a new unopened tin of special metal primer glowed in the dark.
The tin was in a dark corner of the cabin, away from direct sunlight during daylight hours and was not subject to artificial light either. The only light reaching the tin at any time was an overall and defused reflected poor daylight.
The DIY boater is somewhat worried as he has been told that the dust may be radioactive, as it glows like a full moon in a clear night sky with the same intensity and colour, without seemingly being “recharged” by daylight.
Investigations are proposed to see if the dust is dangerous and likely to affect health, due to possible radiation and inhalation of some of this dust.
The boater has recently taken his boat out of the water for preparation of the hull and repainting to protect the steelwork. Some of the preparation work included machine wire brushing of the steel to remove old paint and debris, right back to bright steel to take a special waterproof primer, usually used on steel structures in extreme conditions.
As this work was done in the open air, no dust masks were used during the wire brushing or repainting process and the whitish dust may have been breathed in.
It seems unlikely that the dust came from this source though, because the dust produced by the wire brushing process was a reddish brown, (The residue of the original primer applied), and was not of a light grey colour found on the lid of the tin.
After a preliminary check, no white dust has been found in the area of the boatyard where the DIY work was carried out.
There is a third possibility and that is that the dust was present on the tins of primer when it was delivered direct by courier service from the suppliers.
This has not yet been checked out, so the mystery of where the dust came from has not yet been solved.