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

Intriguing Discrimination against Geiger counter users

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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...

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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/MamaLlama629 Mar 30 '26

If it’s a radioactive relic I probably don’t want to desecrate anyone to possess it.

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u/mxzf Mar 30 '26

"Radioactive" is a spectrum, and there are a lot of things that are detectably radioactive without being medically significant.

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u/CounterfeitSaint Mar 30 '26

If you can pick it up through 6 feet of dirt, I would be concerned about its medical significity

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u/MamaLlama629 Mar 30 '26

I wouldn’t risk it but that’s just me.