[Radio Wrangler]

If the counter is accurate, the radiation from the meter is at such a level that someone would have to stay close to it for a long period in order to reach one of the recommended max doses.

Though the linear theory says that there is no safe dose and that risk tapers off with reducing level only reaching zero risk at zero dose.

However, the radium in that paint will have released Radon, a gas at normal pressures and temperatures. Inhaling any is a far greater danger. Those meters have to stay sealed and are best disposed of properly.

Not far from me was an airfield, Donibristle, which specialised as a repair centre during WWII and did a lot of work on aircraft panel instruments. They burned their scrap and the residue got dumped on the beach of a nearby bay. Years passed and a large housing estate was buily around the bay. Strongly radioactive particles keep turning up on the beach and it is now cordoned off and the subject of arguments over when a serious clean-up job will be done. Just google Dalgety Bay and radiation to see the story. It's pretty serious. And it's all from instrument dials.

David