The science behind it

mb-microtec illumination technology

Mention radioactivity and the image of men in orange radiation protection suits holding geiger counters may come to mind. However, many industries are making good use of radioactive isotopes and in the process, are saving lives in the medical arena and/or manufacturing products containing the mb-microtec GTLS (gaseous tritium light source)- illumination technology powered by the decay of tritium.

What is Tritium?
Tritium is a heavy form (isotope) of hydrogen and for this reason behaves chemically exactly like it. Pure tritium therefore, forms a gas T2 (like hydrogen forms H2).However, tritium is not stable but decays to the inert gas helium with a half-life of 12.3 years. This means that after this time half of any amount of tritium will have become helium. This transformation process is called a pure beta-decay. In this process no gamma radiation occurs and only a low energy electron is emitted.

What are the risks of using Tritium in a GTLS?
None. The low energy electrons of tritium cannot escape the glass body of a mb-microtec trigalight (tradename).
Only the rupture of such a light source would free the tritium gas and it would quickly disburse. A typical traserŽ H3 watch contains anywhere from 15 to 20 mb-microtec trigalight for a total of no more than 25 millicuries. On a yearly bases, the wearer of such a watch must figure on an additional exposure of 0.1 micro sievert, which is about equal to the increase the human body would absorb due to cosmic or random radiation, by living an additional 12 inches above sea level. This 0.1 microsievert is also about 30'000 less than the average yearly exposure due to that same background radiation. Now, lets assume that in a closed, unventilated room all the GTLS of 40 such watches (also 1000 millicuries or 600 to 800 GTLS) would simultaneously burst open and release their tritium gas, the resulting exposure to a person in that room would still be only about 50% of the yearly, random background exposure that every living creature on earth is exposed to. This example, as unlikely as it may seem, serves well to illustrate the scientific facts about this technology and further demonstrates the safe nature of this product.

Comparing mb-microtec illumination (trigalight) and SuperLumiNova
If the luminous markings on a watch are reasonably sized and arranged, the readability in the dark is primarily determined by their total light emitted. In order to assess the relative merits, the light intensity of two dials with identical markings by mb-microtec trigalight ( traserŽ H3-watch ) on one and SuperLumiNova on the other, were measured and compared.
The results, with the light intensity expressed in the unit "nanocandela" (ncd) are given below.

after (in darkness)	0 min.	5 min.	1 hour	8 hours
traserŽ (in nanocandela)	6000	6000	6000	6000
LumiNovaŽ (in nanocandela)	10000	6000	400	30

The radio luminescent trigalight of the traserŽ watch remains constant, while the purely phosphorescent light of the SuperLumiNova may initially be brighter but diminishes within minutes and becomes progressively less luminous.