Question from Annie
Do u think glow in the dark stickers are bad? I assume they have some sort of phosphor containing chemical on them? Bad to touch?
Debra’s Answer
All glow-in-the-dark products contain phosphors, a substance that radiates visible light after being energized.
Chemists have created thousands of chemical substances that have a phosphor effect. Phosphors have three factors:
The type of energy they require to be energized
The color of the visible light that they produce
The length of time that they glow after being energized (known as the persistence of the phosphor)
A glow-in-the-dark toy needs a phosphor that is energized by normal light and that has a very long persistence. Two phosphors that have these properties are Zinc Sulfide and Strontium Aluminate. Strontium Aluminate has a much longer persistence than Zinc Sulfide does. Whatever the phosphor, it is mixed into a plastic and molded to make something glow-in-the-dark.
When I was in Boy Scouts years ago, one of my Scoutmasters was a retired USAF MD. He had access to a Gieger counter. At our Scoutarama booth – I do not remeber the theme of our booth, but I remember as an aside to our demonstration we had the Gieger counter scanning folks – before digital watches most everyone wore wristwathces young and old. Most watches put the Gieger counter off the scale. Many folks were freaked. I have often wanted to scan the packaged salads and mres.