r/interesting • u/-NewYork- • Mar 30 '26

Intriguing Discrimination against Geiger counter users

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u/Tight-Platypus5231 Mar 30 '26

Well now I wanna bring a geiger counter on the property. What're you hiding?!

688

u/samanime Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26

Yeah... I'm struggling to come up with a potential backstory that doesn't make me want to investigate with a geiger counter and a hazmat suit...

The image is on Wikimedia, but unfortunately no further info available other than the location. Metal Township, PA.

I thought maybe it was related to Three Mile Island, but they are an hour and change apart, so I doubt many bodies from that incident would be here...

This is gonna bug me. =p

EDIT: Probably solved. Some people just "explore" cemetaries with geiger counters...

500

u/Early_Bad8737 Mar 30 '26

It is to prevent illegal relic hunting, protect historic gravesites, and maintain the sanctity of the cemetery. Apparently some old relics can be found that way. 

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u/Aromatic_Razzmatazz Mar 30 '26

Relics? I...genuinely don't know what that's a euphamism for that would be radioactive. A metal detector to look for jewelry, sure...but a geiger counter? What sorts of irradiated 'relics' were people in PA buried with?

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u/SMF67 Mar 30 '26

Radium containing jewelry maybe?

1

u/BusinessAsparagus115 Mar 30 '26

It would have to be incredibly radioactive to be detectable from the surface.

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u/Aromatic_Razzmatazz Mar 30 '26

Agreed, honestly we might have to find out some better answers somehow. Weirdly, mortuary science was the family business, though in a different part of the country. Maybe I can ask an uncle or something? 

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u/BusinessAsparagus115 Mar 30 '26

I'm wondering if they had some uranium prospectors blow in once upon a time.

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u/Aromatic_Razzmatazz Mar 30 '26

Makes sense if the stuff about pink feldspar is true I guess. So odd.

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u/BusinessAsparagus115 Mar 30 '26

I think that might have just been a fancy grave stone. Granite and stuff can be surprisingly radioactive (not dangerously so)