Does dry-cleaning get rid of radio-activity?

I am posting this between putting the turkey in the oven and getting the pudding on the boil. The husband and daughter meanwhile are just back from (?recovering from) a visit to the Ukraine – part sourcing objects for an exhibition at the Royal Academy and part (this was the daughter’s idea, needless to say) making a trip to Chernobyl.

Poor naïve creature that I am, I hadn’t realised that it was possible actually to visit Chernobyl. But you can now get an easy-to-arrange, custom-made, rather pricey trip from Kiev, with organisations that will get you a visa to visit the “exclusion zone” (a visa’s still necessary), drive you out from Kiev and show you round. Right up to the “sarcophagus” itself, as you can see in the picture.

Of course this is a moving experience. Heaven knows what is actually happening to the local people now. But I was particularly struck by the tales the family brought back of the (then) Soviet workers who leapt in to the reactor to block off the radio-active surge – knowing that it would kill them within days (which it did). And despite all that follows, I’d recommend taking the trip – even if that is a second-hand judgement.  Inter alia the site has become an amazing animal refuge/rare breeds centre…and the animals happily seem normal enough.

But Mum’s question was, predictably: is it dangerous? Or dangerous for humans?

Well, to start from the guide-book – you can be pretty laid back about Chernobyl itself, but it’s definitely not a good idea to eat the mushrooms in Kiev or eat the river fish. Fair enough. But the second night they were there, husband and daughter were taken out to glitzy dinner by  local hosts. What do you think was on the menu? Mushrooms to start with, followed by sturgeon. What do you think they did?

Eat it, of course.

After that, Chernobyl itself was a bit of a walk over, and full of all the disconcerting pleasures you find in an abandoned town (that's the abandoned ferris wheel on the left) . Lunch was provided and guaranteed (not quite sure how) to be sourced from outside the area, and the party of husband, daughter and the information officer had a dosimeter in the car, which bleeped ominously (but not too ominously they were told) at various points. But despite the claim on the website that a change of clothes would be offered, this particular bit of “health and safety” had been given up years ago. It really wasn’t necessary. In fact the local lore is that you pick up less radiation after a day at Chernobyl than on a trans-Atlantic flight.

There was much cavalier talk on the family’s return. But I did notice that the daughter put her clothes in the washing machine uncharacteristically promptly after she got back, confident – I guess – that whatever particles of radio-activity were left (does radio-activity have “particles”?) would thus be removed.

Husband was soon to follow. Except that his coat and trousers were “dry-clean only”. OK, so it had to be. But, we wondered, does dry cleaning get rid of radio-activity? Or does it just spread it to every one else’s clothes at the cleaners?

And was all this anxiety necessary anyway? I mean, would I have worried about this if I’d just been to the USA on an airplane? And would we have known better if we’d done that Physics GCSE?

Who knows, but the clothes are currently being dry-cleaned (and no one had actually asked if they were contaminated…)

Oh well…now, for me, it's a quick trip to the library where (I hope) I left my key last night, and then it’s back to the Home Economics of the pudding (you need to steam it for longer than you can imagine, I seem to remember), and the sprouts. Then the rest of the troops do the clearing up and I sleep it off.

Comments

[Carpet Cleaning]

Not anyting I would worry about. We get radiation every day from the sun and all the electronic devices we use.

[dr venables preller]

Particles of dust (not necessarily all of nano scale dimension) which are radioactive would appear to be the risk, and transfer from the clothing by the cleaning process to the dust collection trap in the dry cleaning machine would dilute that dust with other dusts present.

The point at which such mixed dust would become 'safe' in radioactive content would depend on the radioactive concentration in the mix, but as dusts pose inhalation risk in any event the question from a hazardous waste perspective would be whether existing health and safety procedures in the dry cleaning industry would be adequate without needing to monitor the level of radioactivity of the dry cleaning dust wastes in such a situation.

[Turtlewind]

The 'particles of radioactivity' themselves don't stick around long enough to stick to your clothes - the stuff you should be worried about is dust made of radioactive material, which gives off radiation but otherwise acts exactly the same way as normal dust. Fortunately, dry cleaning will get rid of this.

[dr venables preller]

One would imagine that there might be some confusion at the Health and Safety Executive and many counter staff at provincial dry cleaners as to whether 'radiation tourism' might carry risk of radioactive particle contamination of clothing over assurances (possibly in the local language), such as might invoke the small print of recent legislation as to hazardous waste substances. Generally, when these are identified in a business context, a paper audit trail is created with copies of signed documents retained by all parties handling such material, some of whom require licences for that purpose.

It might be worthwhile in any future such visits to think disposable, and take old clothes for site visits for consignment to local rubbish afterwards, in the hope that they are not recycled to flea markets.

That could be a possible terminal use for nylon shell suits to avoid charity shop disdain, though preferably without any gaudy decoration (such as luminous paint or lurex).

[SuperCorgi]

The Russian fire fighters and 'disposal teams' were sent out onto the intensely radioactive roof of the facility to throw back in pieces of reactor core - nuclear fuel contaminated graphite. Other fire fighters in helicopters tried to smother the raging reactor fire with sand mixed with various neutron moderators.

The clothes should be fine. Most of the radioactive isotopes have been caught up in the soil or carbon chain, trees, things like that, and is rather diluted. Don't go inhaling smoke from any exclusion zone leaf fires though. There was likely very little if any contamination - nothing with any health impact - and washing would mitigate the rest.

[Peter Sewell]

I don't think politics has much of a place in this blog, but I don't think Lord Truth's remark that "baiting the Russian bear has become yet again the political fashion" should pass without comment. It is far from clear who is baiting whom, in fact I would say that most of the current Cold War reprise is coming from the Russian side.

[Michael Bulley]

“The husband”? (Mary Beard, second sentence, and Eileen). Is this an example of retro-inverse unpolitical incorrectness? I can hardly wait for “my good gentleman husband”!

[Xjy]

People, people! Heroic is what it was, only the heroics were Soviet, although I imagine that the majority of those Soviet heroes were of Ukrainian or Russian nationality. Nazdarovie!
Thanks for the blog, Mary - keep them keys a-clickin!

[Eileen]

the physicist husband also says he has read articles about agriculture re Kiev, that the food produced is considered to be very healthy, free of human waste contamination and so forth..

[Eileen]

the husband here is a physicist: he says yes, radioactivity has particles, yes, the area around Chernobyl now considered safe, and yes, laundering and dry-cleaning will remove the particles.

[Lord Truth]

I must write that I totally agree absolutely word for word with Mr Benfords remarks above: And while we are about it,at a time when baiting the Russian bear has become yet again the political fashion,without Russian bravery we would all be speaking German-those who had escaped the death camps of course

[Tom Benford]

I remember the television pictures of those Russian firefighters dropping into(what? The centre of the reactor?) and thinking at the time it was the bravest thing I had ever seen, and perhaps one of the all-time feats of bravery. I think so still,after all these years; their names should be known internationally, like your classic heroes.