As a child I was subjected to all sorts of risks which would be considered outageous if not illegal today. My brother and I travelled hundreds of miles sitting on loose seats in the back of a van. When we went to the village barbers' to have a haircut we were lost in a cloud of tobacco smoke, and it was the same on the bus going to school. I was allowed to drive tractors from the age of ten. The worst thing of all was when my grandfather gave me an old, luminous pocket watch. I was really proud of it and wore it in my blazer pocket every day to school. I even thought of getting one of those old-fashioned watch chains, though it would probably have broken the school uniform rules. Some time after we happebned to study radioactivity in ecience at school. The teacher set up a geiger counter at the front of the laboratory, then went to his own little room (with a radiation warning sign on the door) and unlocked his cupboard (with another radiation warning sign on it) and brought back the radioactive sample and placed it in front of the geiger counter using tongues. Sure enough, the counter went CLICK ------------------------------CLICK--------------------CLICK-----------------CLICK. Then he mentioned that at one time luminous watches were made luminous using radioactive paint, and did anyone have a luminous watch they would like to try. I proudly handed him my monster watch and to every one's amazement the geiger counter went CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICk-CLICK. I asked him whether I should carry on wearing it, and (amazingly now) he said it might be a good idea to wear it with the face pointing outwards! People didn't take health and safety at all seriously back then. Luckily I did decide to stop wearing it, and that was getting on for forty years ago so I hope I'm out of danger by now!
