While most parents bring back their kids back a teddy bear or novelty t-shirt from their trips away, one man decided to gift his daughter a ‘power stone’ that he had no idea was radioactive.
Airport police in China seized the radioactive uranium ‘power stone’ off the oblivious dad who gave it to his daughter for good luck and caused her nosebleeds for three months.
The golden disc-shaped pendant set off alarms as the air passenger – whose name, age and gender have not been revealed – tried to bring it past security at Dalian airport in China’s north-eastern province of Liaoning on December 11.
Dalian customs officers said the object – dubbed a ‘five-element-proton quantum energy resonator’ – gave off 112.4 microsieverts of radiation an hour, the equivalent to receiving 11 dental X-rays at the same time. A ‘sievert’ is a unit of ironizing radiation.
Humans typically receive 2,000 to 3,000 microsieverts a year from natural background radiation, while CT scans and chest X-rays give off 15,000 and 20 microsieverts per hour respectively.
According to reports, exposure to 100,000 microsieverts a year is the lowest cancer risk threshold, and an accumulated 1,000,000 microsieverts – or 1 sievert – will lead to a fatal cancer in one out of every 100 people exposed.
Airport authorities said the man gave the ‘power stone’ laced with radioactive thorium-232 and uranium-232 to his young daughter to – ironically – ‘keep her safe’.
It has reportedly been linked to the girl’s chronic nosebleeds, which lasted three months, according to the customs officials.
Customs officers seized the object to dispose of it, but it was not the first piece of radioactive jewellery or good luck charm they have found passing through security, they said.
According to the report, similar power stone bracelets and even belts have been confiscated from people, who unknowingly buy them for good luck and to keep them safe.
The authorities have warned members of the public against purchasing items promising pseudo-scientific spiritual or physical health benefits.
Negative ion bracelets became popular in the US a few years ago, but were also later discovered to be releasing radiation into the bodies of those wearing them. It was thought that negative ions ‘boost serotonin levels and boost your energy’.
So, next time you think about trying to make your kid the next Thanos, maybe just play it safe and get them a normal gift that won’t cause them chronic nose bleeds, and won’t potentially aid turning them into a supervillian trying to take over the universe.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.