[time-nuts] RE Rb danger

[FISCH, MICHAEL]

Please relax Rb is rubidium.  It has a large number of isotopes but almost all rubidium is either stable (AW=85), or an isotope that is a beta (ie. electron) emitter.  Electrons generally don't travel too far.  Rubidium is used in fireworks (Ok guys who make fireworks are maybe a bit overly brave).  I imagine a broken lamp will just allow the gas to diffuse into the air.  Leave a window open for a while and things should be safe.
If you ingest  it, rubidium is not particularly toxic, wiki states a 70 kg person typically has .36 gm of rubidium in them, and 10-100 x this amount appears to be fine.  Potassium has a similar radioactive isotope (very small fraction however) that we routinely ingest with bananas.  In fact, Rb readily substitutes for K because they are both alkali metals. Radium is Ra.


Mike