If it's contained in glass or something and not just an open canister of powder, it's actual fairly innocuous
You can take uranium rocks from the US and transport them in a commercial airline over the world.
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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And yet, she's 95 and has survived cancer multiple times...
Kind of reminds me of my step-mother. It's not the lifetime of heavy chain smoking that caused/causes her to keep getting cancer and worsening respiratory illness. It's the chemicals "they put in everything". It's "they used to put mercury in our vaccines". It's "all the drugs they make you take these days". It's blamed on everything else and the 60+ years of almost non-stop cigarette smoking just contributed but didn't cause it.
And, of course, plenty of common things besides cigarette smoke can cause cancer, so it's not like I'm denying that. Just that Occam's Razor being what it is, I'm going with the simplest and most obvious explanation that there's evidence of to explain all the health issues.
It's such a common thing in medicine, mental health, weight loss, IT troubleshooting, etc. It's not impossible that the answer is complex, but we always feel like we're a special case and it can't possibly be as simple as "eat less", "get more sleep", "turn it off and on again".
This is the argument that cigarette companies used for a long time to avoid accountability. It wasn't the fault of the cigarettes. It's all those contributing factors.
I saw a lot of that during lockdown. "She didn't die from COVID! She died of pneumonia!" Wow, a lot of people are dying from pneumonia this year! That isn't normal, is it?
Uranium glass is relatively safe reddit assured me, for whatever that is worth.
I don't think this was uranium glass but a glass vial of uranium that was likely a part of those Atomic Lab kits they sold to kids in the 1940's and 50's.
So long as the glass doesnt have deep scratches or is chipped*
It scratches at a level six, with deeper grooves at a level seven.
Naturally occuring Uranium is, really, not very radioactive. You can even eat it and have it pass through your digestive system without any significant negative impact - there was a scientist who (slightly facetiously) used to do this in lectures to prove the safety of nuclear power and lived to a ripe old age.
We use it in power plants because it's fissile, not because it's radioactive, it's easier to sustain chain reactions with constant output.
Spent nuclear fuel, however, is extremely radioactive because when we fission Uranium it splits into very radioactive isotopes of Caesium, Iodine, Xenon etc. plus a ton of minor actinides.
Well it was from an old chemistry set, I would be impressed if it had 95% purity and god knows what the other 5% are.
Also it depends a little bit on how big the vial was, a small HPLC vial may only have contained 100mg, the buttplug style vial they often use to showcase ores/salts may contain like 1kg of it. And also if it was properly sealed or just plugged.
Last factor would be time, a Prof swallowing 10mg once a year has contact with this stuff for 60 days, but lets say she got it from her brother when he was age 15 that would mean semi-close contact 8 hours a day for 80 years. Also the Prof hopefully didnt swallow more of it as uranium apart from being radioactive is also toxix although it takes like 8g to kill one, given the density thats not a too big pill to swallow.
Finally its still only a chance, every bit of radioactivity that hits you could be the one causing cancer.
Yup - most likely a small chunk of ore. The glass vial itself would block the vast majority of alpha emission so it's very unlikely in this case that it had anything to do with the cancer I'd say
Natural uranium mostly emits alpha particles. It’s dangerous if you eat or inhale it, but the wood in the nightstand drawer is going to be enough to block them.
Paper and skin can stop alpha particles. Glass, plastic, or a little bit of metal can stop beta. It's gamma that will get you, often because of what the gamma does through the material, knocking off new particles as it exits.
The uranium in one of these kits probably had the same potency as the radium pendants you can buy now. It's fine as long as it stays in its container and never gets inside your body.
Of course gamma will get you, she beat cancer countless times. Gamma is badass.
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Modded Minecraft ruined my mind because this reminded me of a time when opening a wooden chest full of plutonium gave me radiation poisoning and ruined my deathless playground. My mate picked it up after and then also immediately died. Stupid dragons and their stupid plutonium.
That sounds fun Which modpack was that?
Enigmatica 2 Expert. A fun mix of mods produced a Fire and Ice Dragon that had treasure loot from Industrial Craft 2... you're supposed to handle radioactive materials with proper safety gear. Who'd have thought? Lol
Man, 1.12 really was the golden age of Minecraft mods
Or the fabled Fiestaware™©® relish trays lol.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Dd2Bn_YshSA
Bring a Geiger counter to an antique store to find these spicy plates.
Answer: It depends on the amount and qualities of the uranium, as well as how it is stored.
Glass vial, not bad, not great.
Seriously though, those older chem sets had natural samples, so likely not enough to really do damage unless you used it as a jade stone or suppository.
Or decide to do a little stone polishing or carving. Don’t breathe this!
Realistically if it's in a vile in a draw the wood and glass probably blocks most of the radiation. It probably won't be that high purity if it's from a 1940s toy set
But she apparently keeps getting cancer…
Yes, like millions of people who don't have any uranium. Hmm.
She has lived so long with uranium next to her for much of her life? This needs to be studied, maybe she's onto something
This reminded me of the Japan/smoking/lifespan thing. Turns out decent healthcare is pretty helpful. The most helpful, really, when it comes to determining average length of stay on this hellrock.