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Museum of the Game® & International Arcade Museum® Forums
Strange topic I know! I was recently doing some research on radiation levels in the home environment and was actually kind of surprised this really existed. This research actually proved to me that beyond electromagnetic field radiation (EMFR) levels like the endless concerns over cell phones, microwaves, etc. there is an actual concern with radiation emission from vintage electronics especially where CRT tubes are involved. I talked to a few doctor friends of mine who specialize in EHS (electromagnetic hypersensitivity) and they all confirmed the concern is real and experienced by a wide variety of people who become more sensitive as they age. The ranges of symptoms were all over the map but they did provide me two contacts of companies who specialize in actually measuring the levels in your home environment. One company was located fairly close to me so I had them come out for an evaluation of my house and specifically my basement where Tranquility Base Arcade resides. In summary - pretty interesting stuff. They had a fairly straight forward system that puts a sensor in each room with wireless transmission to a central meter that indicates the level of exposure. Instructions were pretty easy to understand. 1. If the meter starts to glow red actual trace elements of radiation are being detected and 2. The meter 'maximum' tells you the safe level of exposure with the high end of the scale being a serious cause for concern. This company told me the installed system has to 'acclimate' for a week before accurate levels can be detected. So, I waited a week (ok - 6 days) and fired this system up. Interesting enough turning on the system for a few hours I got ZERO readings. So even though arcade components can leak they are relatively inert when not powered up. I turned on a few arcade games and got nothing as well. Here is where it gets weird. With about 6 arcade games on I actually started to get a faint glow of red?! WTF? When I turned on 10 or more games the meter glowed BRIGHT RED and actually has a reading. Should I be concerned with this? Can I seriously be waiting from this company to return my call to tell me I can't actually play 'That Many' arcade games at one time?