Editing Thorium (section)

===Phasing out===
In the 1990s, most applications that do not depend on thorium's radioactivity declined quickly due to safety and environmental concerns as suitable safer replacements were found.{{sfn|Wickleder|Fourest|Dorhout|2006|pp=52–53}}<ref name="Furuta">{{cite journal|last1=Furuta|first1=E.|last2=Yoshizawa|first2=Y.|last3=Aburai|first3=T.|date=2000|title=Comparisons between radioactive and non-radioactive gas lantern mantles|journal=J. Radiol. Prot.|volume=20|issue=4|pages=423–431|pmid=11140713|bibcode=2000JRP....20..423F|doi=10.1088/0952-4746/20/4/305|s2cid=7368077 }}</ref> Despite its radioactivity, the element has remained in use for applications where no suitable alternatives could be found. A 1981 study by the [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]] in the United States estimated that using a thorium gas mantle every weekend would be safe for a person,<ref name="Furuta" /> but this was not the case for the dose received by people manufacturing the mantles or for the soils around some factory sites.<ref>{{cite journal|author=New Jersey Department of Health|date=1996|title=Health and hazardous waste|url=http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/hhazweb/hhw_no_3.pdf|journal=A Practitioner's Guide to Patients' Environmental Exposures|volume=1|issue=3|pages=1–8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415153459/http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/hhazweb/hhw_no_3.pdf|archive-date=15 April 2016}}</ref> Some manufacturers have changed to other materials, such as yttrium.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Toepker |first1=Terrence P. |date=1996 |title=Thorium and yttrium in gas lantern mantles |journal=American Journal of Physics |volume=64 |issue=2 |page=109 |doi=10.1119/1.18463 |bibcode=1996AmJPh..64..109T |doi-access=free }}</ref> As recently as 2007, some companies continued to manufacture and sell thorium mantles without giving adequate information about their radioactivity, with some even falsely claiming them to be non-radioactive.<ref name="Furuta" /><ref name="Poljanc">{{cite journal|last1=Poljanc|first1=K.|last2=Steinhauser|first2=G.|last3=Sterba|first3=J. H.|last4=Buchtela|first4=K.|last5=Bichler|first5=M.|display-authors=3|date=2007|title=Beyond low-level activity: on a "non-radioactive" gas mantle|journal=[[Science of the Total Environment]]|volume=374|issue=1|pages=36–42|doi=10.1016/j.scitotenv.2006.11.024|pmid=17270253|bibcode=2007ScTEn.374...36P}}</ref>