Toxic stuff?!?!

[JakePhelps]

I noticed while digging bottle dumps there can be alot of dangerous looking metals and stuff. Is there any toxic metals and stuf besides lead and iron oxide that you should watch out for? What about those old batteries, are those toxic

[ClonedSIM]

I don't know about toxic metals, but I can tell you abut something I ran into that may have been toxic in some way. I was working a site where a house had been demolished and was digging a good signal near a large pile of reddish dirt. I started to dig out the signal, a Wheatie, and I noticed the gound was warm. Not even warm, flat out HOT! And the deeper I dug the hotter it got. Now, in the middle of summer I would not have been so surprised about this, but this was November! After I got that signal, I can guarantee you I beat a path out of there! Anyone have any idea about this?

[JakePhelps]

Radioactive waste

[lets_go]

I don't know about toxic metals, but I can tell you abut something I ran into that may have been toxic in some way.? I was working a site where a house had been demolished and was digging a good signal near a large pile of reddish dirt.? I started to dig out the signal, a Wheatie, and I noticed the gound was warm.? Not even warm, flat out HOT!? And the deeper I dug the hotter it got.? Now, in the middle of summer I would not have been so surprised about this, but this was November!? ? After I got that signal, I can guarantee you I beat a path out of there!? Anyone have any idea about this?

Compost pile?

[cryptodave]

I don't know about toxic metals, but I can tell you abut something I ran into that may have been toxic in some way.? I was working a site where a house had been demolished and was digging a good signal near a large pile of reddish dirt.? I started to dig out the signal, a Wheatie, and I noticed the gound was warm.? Not even warm, flat out HOT!? And the deeper I dug the hotter it got.? Now, in the middle of summer I would not have been so surprised about this, but this was November!? ? After I got that signal, I can guarantee you I beat a path out of there!? Anyone have any idea about this?

Compost pile?

Thats probable.

[ClonedSIM]

One would normally think that, but this was in a location that was inside of the foundation of the house, meaning it was under the house before razing.

[bk]

Watch out for gold. You might get gold fever!
The only toxic metal that you might want to watch out for is mercury. There are others but you would probably have to eat them in large quantities.
The only danger in batteries would be the sulfuric acid in lead car batteries.

[JakePhelps]

oh yea forgot about mercury, so besides mercury, rusty iron, and lead are there any otheres that are hazerdous to your health? The batteries i find are kinda big and have a stick thingy going thru them.

[bk]

Jake, The stick thingy is a carbon rod. You will find that it is conductive. It will give a response on your detector.
There are other metals that are toxic, but not likely to cause you a problem.
Beryllium is a metal once used in springs.
Cadmium may be found in batteries.
Even nickel can be toxic if you have an allergy to it. I know a person who breaks out in a severe rash upon contact with any type of nickel metals.

[JakePhelps]

Are carbon rods like worth anything in carbon? What is around the carbon rod?

[bk]

The Carbon is worthless. Older batteries used to have carbon rods within the battery case with some other chemicals that created the current within the battery. I'm not sure what the materials are though. I'm not sure how they worked. All I know is that I have found some of these carbon rods, but everything else around the battery has long since decayed away.

[weldermark]

aside from the toxic metal's, in handling old dug metal you must also be aware of tetanus.



HH Mark

[JakePhelps]

Im up on my shots as far as i know could you get tetnus from just putting your hand in rusty water?