Overview
- Two people in a garage in Landkreis Bergstraße reported a historic radium drinking apparatus to the Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt, which measured and seized the device after confirming it contains radium-226 and posed no immediate danger to the finders or staff.
- The Darmstadt authority warned that outwardly harmless-looking cups can still hold significant radioactive material and that possession may fall under radiation-protection rules and require official permission.
- Radium drinking cups were sold in large numbers in the early 20th century to enrich water with radon for supposed health benefits and they typically keep most of their activity because radium-226 has a roughly 1,600-year half-life.
- Officials urge owners not to open, damage, throw away, or take such items to recycling centers and to contact the competent radiation protection authority for safe handling and disposal.
- Many of these devices likely remain in attics, cellars, flea markets, or online sales where owners may not know the risk, a situation that could prompt further seizures, public warnings, and offers of authority-assisted disposal.