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GIA Trade Alert Warns About Color change in Gems
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Irradiation Utilized
Internationally:
The irradiation system
involved is manufactured by SureBeam Corp. of San Diego, California.
SureBeam, which is a subsidiary of Titan Corp., originally developed its
equipment to kill pathogens in food, such as salmonella. But, according to the
GIA research team, SureBeam’s linear accelerator generates a type of ionizing
radiation that is often used intentionally to change the color of some
gemstones. Using data supplied by SureBeam, GIA subjected 16 different gem materials
to doses of irradiation that are similar to those being used by the Postal
Service. The researchers added to the group a 14-karat yellow gold ring, to
reassure the industry that gold jewellery would not retain any residual
radioactivity from this process. The samples were packaged in the same manner
that GIA routinely uses to ship gems from its Gem Trade Laboratory. Because
gemstones are often shipped through the mail more than once, some samples were
scanned just once, another scanned twice, and the third scanned four times.
Dramatic Change in Color:
After they retrieved the packages, the researchers first checked for the
presence of residual radiation. No residual radiation was detected.
Nonetheless, all of the gems other than diamond showed a dramatic change in
color. Among the gemstones the showed a color change were kunzite, morganite,
saltwater and freshwater cultured pearls, quartz, sapphire, tourmaline and
zircon.
The GIA researchers noted that there are many other gem materials that might be
affected by this process, and the same gem materials from different localities
or with chemical or structural differences may respond differently.
The U.S.
post office is currently scanning only a small portion of the mail and only
letters and flat envelopes. According to John Dunlap, head of the USPS
department that is overseeing mail sanitization operations, “Probably nothing
will be done to packages that are sent registered or certified (the preferred
method for the jewellery industry), since we now require information from the
sender.”
GIA also contacted the U.S. Customs Service, Brinks, Malca Amit, UPS, and FedEx
ot see if they were currently using sanitization procedures or had plans to do
so. They all stated that no irradiation procedures were being used or were
planned at this time.
(Source: Gempluse)
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