# Uranium Glass **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 27, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191 "2003-09-27T19:26:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elijah.Gregory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3e96dc/32.png) [@Elijah.Gregory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elijah.Gregory)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/21 "2010-12-18T15:08:24Z")
The danger from Uranium is from inhalation. Ingestion is also a concern, but elimination is efficient. Your skin can, and will, absorb most alpha radiation, which is just ionized helium if you will recall. The problem with ingesting radioactive material is that you bypass the protection afforded by your skin and you also place the source of the radiation in your body, so it will continue to decay inside of you until it is eliminated. I would not recommend ingesting any of the glass, but serving off of it would be fine, as would using it in the microwave (the microwave energy is presumably not tuned to a wavelength that will vibrate or rotate [good lord, imagine how long the lambda’d be on that puppy] the doped silicate lattice) So I’m wondering, how many people here think that drinking a Coca-Cola out of a U-glass is more harmful than flying from Boston to New Orleans? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/22 "2010-12-18T15:19:05Z")
So, it will make you rise as a radioactive zombie? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/23 "2010-12-18T15:34:21Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > The only one of the Fiesta Ware colors that contained (depleted)uranium oxide was red. Production of red items ceased in 1943 and resumed in 1959; a non-radioactive red (“Mango Red”) was introduced in 1969 and ran through 1973. I would actually call the radioactive Fiesta Ware orange. My grandmother had some of it. I took a nuclear science class in high school, and we borrowed a bowl to measure. It was hot enough that it was technically supposed to be stored in a lead container according to our guidelines, though I don’t think the incidental exposure from it was really dangerous. It’s not like you’re going to wear the bowl on your head all day, and it’s primarily an alpha emitter anyway, as observed. Yeah, I ate cereal out of the damned things at my grandmother’s house as a kid. As to why uranium in depression glass? Well, it’s pretty. And in the 1930s, nobody knew much about radiation hazards. It was also cheap to make, and in an era where a lot of people were struggling economically, it was a very attractive inducement for business promotions. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/24 "2010-12-18T16:23:09Z")
> [@clayton\_e](#): > > This is a novelty item? How do you just come across uranium glass? Well, if two people who love each other very much climb on top of a table full of uranium glass… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/25 "2010-12-18T16:41:07Z")
> [@Elijah.Gregory](#): > > I would not recommend ingesting any of the glass, but serving off of it would be fine, as would using it in the microwave (the microwave energy is presumably not tuned to a wavelength that will vibrate or rotate [good lord, imagine how long the lambda’d be on that puppy] the doped silicate lattice) I’ll go one further - don’t ingest _any_ glass, period. > [@](#): > > So I’m wondering, how many people here think that drinking a Coca-Cola out of a U-glass is more harmful than flying from Boston to New Orleans? Since I’m diabetic and Coca-Cola would spike my blood sugar, drinking the Coca-Cola out of a U-glass is likely more harmful to me than flying. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/26 "2010-12-18T17:29:51Z")
> [@Myglaren](#): > > Don’t carry it around in your sporran > [@The\_Griffin](#): > > LOL! The correct pharse is: _HOOT! MON!_ ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/27 "2010-12-18T19:30:54Z")
> [@Wearia](#): > > … like many consumers, I am weary of buying possibly radioactive materials. You buy so much it make you weary? (Methinks this should be _wary_.) ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/28 "2010-12-18T22:58:50Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > You buy so much it make you weary? > > (Methinks this should be _wary_.) Good luck getting the OP to notice that zinger. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/29 "2010-12-19T22:05:25Z")
> [@Wearia](#): > > I came across some Uranium glass Dude! TMI!! ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191/30 "2010-12-19T22:19:37Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > \*t will not harm anybody from your knicknack shelf. What if he paddywacks someone with it? Or make a serving dish to give his dog a bone? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-glass/204191.md?page=1)