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Tritium decays by beta-decay (an electron). The electron can not travel very far in air (1/4 inch), and is stopped by even the thinnest piece of metal. It's even stopped by the dead outer layer of your skin.

i.e. it's completely harmless unless you eat it.



Not quite: beta decay will penetrate the skin enough to damage living tissue - beta burns are what caused the fatalities of the Chernobyl first responder fire fighters.

They spent a few hours covered in dust on their coats, and did a bunch of subsurface skin damage which manifested as third degree burns. Sepsis, not radiation poisoning, generally killed them.




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