Are Vaseline beads safe to wear?

I was recently asked this question via e-mail, and since it is a common question, thought I should post the Q&A here online, too:

Are Vaseline beads safe to wear?

A FAQ about "greasy yellow" trade beads
Both the square and the bi-cone Vaseline beads are from the same period. These styles were probably made between 1830 to 1915. The "greasy green" and "greasy yellow" colors are made with a Uranium salt and will fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The Czech names for these colors are "Anna green" and "Anna yellow".

A google search for [ Vaseline uranium bead ] and for ["Anna green" bead] will find many references to these beads.

The question "Is it safe to wear the beads containing uranium salts because of the radioactivity?" comes up from time to time. It has been discussed at Beads-L, at the old NationalBeadSociety forum and on the late Peter Francis's thebeadsite.com. I can no longer find the link to his reply in thebeadsite.com chat line or in the reference pages. (www.thebeadsite.com still exists in a static form so most of his effort and writings are still available.) The conclusion in all these discussions is that the beads are not dangerous to wear. If you wear a strand of uranium salt containing beads for many years, the total radiation received is similar to an x-ray or a flight in a high altitude jet.

At http://www.raddector.com (a site selling geiger counters) a green Vaseline bead is tested at "200CPM with the bead directly in front of the detector window, or about 0.2mR/hr."

I saved a copy of Pete's reply in my FAQ file and repeat it here:

A member of the Central Ohio Bead Society worked as a technician at the X-Ray section of a hospital. She tested the "Anna green" Czech beads called "Vaseline" beads in the US. It was decided that one could wear a strand of them for 40 years before getting the equivalent of one X-ray.
Presumably the same applies to "Anna yellow."
Peace
Pete Francis

(This answer provided by Russ Nobbs; posted by Polly)