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By Lydia Patrick
Life & Trends Reporter
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A man made a startling discovery after learning the "glow-in-the-dark" rock his grandfather stored under his shed was radioactive.
In a post shared to Reddit's r/whatsthisrock, user striking_advance3338 asked fellow Redditors about a gold, luminous rock in a post titled "Whats this rock?? It's extremely radioactive and I think it might contain Uranium," which received over 1,600 upvotes and 463 comments.
The rock lover said his father visited Ruggles Mine, New Hampshire, 30 years ago and found a rock that glowed under UV flashlight, so he suspected that it was radioactive.
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"He took the rock home and put it underneath his dad's shed. Me and my father had recently visited the same mine that my father went to when he was 12," Garrett Tennis, 25, from New Hampshire told Newsweek.
"So me and my dad went to his father's house and I went checking underneath the shed. I pulled out a few rocks and my dad had spotted one he said might have been the one."
whats this rock its extremely radioactive and i
r/whatsthisrock
He took the rock home and used a Geiger counter—an electronic machine which can detect radioactivity.
The Geiger counter reading was 3,020 counts per minute (CPM) of radiation.
According to SOEKS USA, a company which manufactures Geiger counters and radiation detectors, CPM measurements pick up the number of particles, such as alpha and beta particles, in the surrounding area.
"A CPM reading of at least 100 is considered a warning level by the Radiation Network, although the length of time you're exposed to the radiation is an important factor," Stanislav Dreval, the founder of the company, wrote on its website.
Long-term exposure to radiation can increase your risk of cancer, according to MedlinePlus.
Our bodies are designed to cope with low levels of radiation, though the type and amount of radiation one is exposed to determines the potential damage.
"The rock that I recovered can be very dangerous, it has gummite in it. Gummite is a radioactive element made up of uranium and other radioactive materials," Tennis explained.
"The most dangerous thing about the rock is if you touch it and then accidentally ingest or inhale the dust. Ingestion or inhalation of the radioactive material can be very dangerous and lead to cancer. I use proper precautions to keep me and my family safe from the rock."
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"Can't tell what ore it is but don't mess with radioactive stuff that falls into little, tiny bits," TemperateStone advised in the Reddit thread. Responding to the user, Tennis said he washed his hands thoroughly after touching the rock.
Another user suggested the rock was probably uranium ore and urged him to be cautious.
"If it is Uranium ore, then it emits mainly alpha particles, which can cause damage only to a very limited extent and if you are prolonged contact. Skin acts as a barrier to their penetration, but I wouldn't want to test that out, so it is still risky to be around," said Nexr-Project-1450.
"It is described as crumbly, which means particles could become airborne, and inside the body—especially the lungs—the alpha particles would run riot."
An expert weighed in on whether the rock could pose real dangers to humans.
Duane Parnham, executive chairman and CEO of Madison Metals, a Canadian junior uranium miner based in Toronto, told Newsweek: "While I would consider the reading displayed in the post shared [3,020 CPM] as elevated levels of radioactivity, these levels are not typically harmful to humans. These are the same levels as a rock you would find out on the ground in at our uranium exploration site in Namibia, Africa."
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