Hey @amal, quick question with a possibly detailed answer: Why was the xGLO discontinued exactly?
I see in the thread below that you said it was just too dangerous, but for who? You manufacturing them or people implanting them, and why? Would you say they were more, less, or the same risk as the Firefly? As much detail as you care to lay into here would be very much appreciated.
I specifically ask because I really want one (or more), but with the Cyberise store not looking likely to come back any time soon I am interested in my other options. I appreciate any time you have to answer!!!
But… They contain radioactive tritium gas. Break it open in the air, and it’ll mostly dissipate. Break it open inside of you, and your flesh will absorb all that tritium. Not good at all, definitely unhealthy. The xGLO is not gonna make a comeback in any realistic scenario.
There is hope however. Been some experiments with glow powder as a light source. But unfortuneatly it’s been pushed to the back of the new projects queue with some other stuff taking priority. Till it comes out, you can read about it here.
I’m not worried about the tritium risks. I have a pretty reasonable understanding of it and based on where I would install and the generally low risk of breakage, I don’t think it’s much to worry over for my own estimation. Of course, I would go see the Elephant’s Foot in person if I ever got the chance, so…
Of course, I suppose that in this case it’s up to Amal to make that decision, and if he’s not comfortable with selling them, I can’t really convince him otherwise.
Not sure how much tritium is in it but it’s lifespan in the body is limited (7-10 days) as it’s water soluble. Some have a fairly high content probably not so much in that size though. The longer the lifespan, the brighter and more tritium it has.
A bigger hazard may be the phosphors used; some are pretty toxic.
I wuv things that glow perpetually and have quit a few tritium sticks from old signs. However as stated before breaking one in room is no big deal simply air it out/carefully then clean up the pieces… a lot easier than trying to retrieve embedded phosphors and glass from flesh.
Interesting thing about tritium is it’s rate of decay is constant; not effected by heat or cold. It’s also a regulated isotope by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the USA.
I’d be worried about having anything significantly radioactive inside of me. But I’d be even more worried about having a bubble of gas under my skin, should the glass vessel break. I’m no doctor, but I’m thinking it could lead to tissue necrosis, or it could find its way in the circulatory system. Unless it’s dissolved quickly. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be keen to find out…
Yeah, I saw that, but it wasn’t really the answer I was looking for, lol. C’mon Amal! Let me dose myself! Let me lick the Elephant’s Foot!
@blackhawk, I generally agree. The Fireflies are generally thought to be pretty safe even when they break, aside from the broken glass bit. A friend on Twitter had hers break and yeah, it sucked cause she had to have a doctor extract the glass, but beyond that general advice was “Drink a lot of water for a few weeks, you’ll be fine.” Moreover, it is generally believed that it behaves like water and flushes out of the system fairly quickly.
Also didn’t the girl from Twitter turn out to not actually have hers broken, she just thought it was broken?
Also realistically the liability of the xGLO is just a bad business proposition. If someone breaks an xGLO and it makes them more than even a little bit sick it would be bad press, and depending on how sick could do some serious damage to DT or lead to a costly lawsuit.
Furthermore, there isn’t any documented cases of a broken Firefly or xGLO that I’ve seen, so what would happen is still kind of in the air. Tritium, while water soluble is also fat soluble and salt soluble, Tritated water is well studied and mostly harmless, but in fat or muscle Trtirum would be dangerous. So depending on where in your body the implant is when it breaks could do different things. If it binds to water first you’re probably fine, but if it binds to fat first you’re in a lot more trouble, worse still if it binds to muscle or something else that won’t give it up as that could lead to some serious long term health risks. Which just ain’t worth it for a feint glow.
Don’t forget potential necrosis, but yeah thats why I wouldn’t…
I mean if I bought something that’s marketed as an implant, implanted it and it broke and gave me radiation poisoning or necrosis etc and sued very bad for business …
Don’t get me wrong i would love something like an xLED that I could just turn on and off without any pain in the ass hardware but alas we are limited (at the moment).
Side not how do people feel about super caps in the body rather than batteries
at super caps. Seem much safer than a battery, but if my knowledge of capacitors is anything it’s that they’re always the first component you replace when something stops working and that usually fixes it.
Truth told I dunno, I didn’t see any followups, so maybe not? And really, if we’re talking about radiation concerns those are years off. Still, worth the risk to me from an interest perspective.
@Devilclarke, yeah, I get ya, but again, I just don’t think that’s really such a significant risk. It’s far more likely to be absorbed, as at any rate, the tritium gas would not be conducive to any such concerns especially at such trace amounts.
Regarding supercaps, I don’t think they’re going to be feasible as regular implants for a very long time based on size constraints, only for the hardcore grinders who wanna do larger incisions to do installs, which I don’t. If it were an injectable size, maybe with some SMD components we can get there, but I still think it’s a ways off.
Keep in mind a tritium ampoule hardly qualifies as “trace amounts”. The general disregard for tritium exposure is because the usual vector is through drinking contaminated water, which can be flushed out of your system by drinking excessive amounts of uncontaminated water.
The xGLO does not have resin inside to provide structural support like the other x-series implants. If it cracks due to blunt force trauma, a bunch of broken glass will cut flesh and expose the tritium to your bloodstream. It might not have immediate effects, but it certainly wouldn’t be good for your life expectancy.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind an xGLO. I’m just letting you know why Amal doesn’t sell them anymore.
Betavoltaics are pretty cool. zvava started a thread about a watch implant where we talked about that. I just wish you could get them to produce more current. You’re not going to get very far with micro-amps
In short, I just am not interested in making booby traps. Break an x-series chip, not much happens and you have it taken out. Basically negligible risk. Break an xGLO and there absolutely is significant risk. I just don’t want to enable such a booby trap inside the body.
Don’t take this the wrong way Amal but I can’t help wondering how you thought selling capsules full of radioactive gas for people to implant under their skin was ever a good idea - not to mention, the complication and risk of handling the stuff when encapsulating it.
The other thing I wonder is how you managed to get your hands on tritium gas. Surely it’s a controlled substance and you need a variance to buy it. I once bought a 5W tube laser (before high-power solid-state laser diodes existed) and the feds were all over my case for weeks. And that wasn’t even radioactive…
If I recall correctly from the original post the xGLO is a off the shelf Tritium vial potted into a biosafe glass capsule. The vials are fairly easy to acquire.
at super caps. Seem much safer than a battery, but if my knowledge of capacitors is anything it’s that they’re always the first component you replace when something stops working and that usually fixes it.