Tritium.
It's that mysterious glowing element
found in air,
water, and now,
inside you.
Yeah, that's right.
You're going take this radioactive isotope
and chug it down.
Bottoms up!
So if you drank tritium,
So what the heck is tritium anyway?
Well, simply put,
it's the radioactive form of hydrogen.
Hydrogen with two extra neutrons,
to be exact.
And that combination makes it unstable.
It can be found in either a gas
or liquid form.
For our experiment,
we'll be dealing with the liquid.
It's in the atmosphere when cosmic rays
hit gases floating up there.
But you don't need to look up to find it.
It's right here on the ground.
Manufacturers mix tritium gas with
a little bit of phosphor to create a self-luminous light source
that doesn't need electricity.
That makes it perfect
for exit signs and emergency lighting.
But if this isotope entered your body,
Tritium emits beta radiation
meaning it gives off energy as it decays.
Typically, its weak particles
aren't strong enough to penetrate the skin.
So it wouldn't be your skin glowing.
But we'll dive further into that later.
Doctors often use small amounts of tritium
to trace chemical compounds in the human body.
But you, in all your wisdom,
are gulping down 4.5 l (1 gal) of this stuff.
So what happens next?
Well, once you consume this isotope,
it goes right through your bloodstream
via your gastrointestinal tract.
Minutes later,
it would be in your organs
and your tissue.
And in less than two hours,
the tritium would contaminate all of your body fluids.
A study published by the International Atomic Energy Agency
found that 56% of rats drinking tritium-laced water
developed tumors within 18 months.
And considering how much you just drank,
maybe that would be your fate.
Even if you guzzled less than a few liters,
it would take a month
to pee out all the tritium.
Beta particles,
the radioactive element in tritium,
have low energy and wouldn't be able to travel
far throughout your body.
Sounds good, right?
These particles would clump together
in certain places in your body,
creating radioactive hotspots.
These small areas would be bombarded with radiation.
So would those areas
give off a less than healthy glow?
Well, remember tritium needs phosphorus to light up.
So overeating phosphorus-rich food,
like meat, eggs and some dairy products,
could start a chemical reaction.
Your stomach could light up like a glow stick.
And that light would be absorbed
in all the surrounding tissue.
But this isn't a party trick
you want to do often.
These photons contain such a high amount of energy
that they could alter
your DNA permanently.
But now that tritium is coursing through your system,
Well, again, since tritium breaks down over time,
some companies have developed
tritium batteries that can last more than 20 years.
But even though you might be
a walking night light,
it wouldn't work that way.
The radiation emitting from the decaying
tritium would have to hit a semiconductor
to carry an electrical charge.
Yeah, well, that's a relief.
But even if you haven't downed liters of tritium,
Well, maybe, if you live near a nuclear reactor.
As I said,
tritium is the by-product
of nuclear reactors.
And while it can be separated from water,
the process is costly,
so many power plants don't consider it
an extra step worth taking
since the material eventually breaks down.
Even the infamous Fukushima plant in Japan will discharge
its treated water beginning in 2023.
In Florida,
scientists studying a nuclear power plant
found an elevated tritium concentration in the drinking water.
Now, while those levels were still below EPA standards,
they were up to 215 times
that of the background level of radiation.
But hey, since you're in the mood
to drink something toxic,
let's double down.
What if I gave you a glass of water from Lake Natron?
Well, pinch your nose and chug it back
because that's a story for another WHAT IF.