On Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:01:55 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:47:02 -0400, "John Gilmer"
wrote:


Radon definitely exists. It's an inert gas with a relatively short
half-life than can suddendly turn into a radioactive heavy metal that can
easily get set into your lungs. Once there it's a good candidate to start
a cancer growth.


OK, please explain where it comes from. (yes, obviously the ground).
I mean what causes it? Is it similar to methane gas, and if so, why

No. It's an element, not a compound, and afaik exists one atom at a
time. Yes, that's it. If it could combine even with itself, it
wouldn't be inert, like the other noble (and inert) gases, Helium,
Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, and the iiuc theoretical Uuo, which I
don't find explained anywhere in the article.

is it not explosive or flammable? How can a heavy metal exist in the
form of a gas? That seems impossible.

That does sound strange. Although a molecule of some complicated
hydrocarbon that floats like gasoline might well be heavier than
radon. I don't think it's enough to say that the boiling temperature
is below 70. WHY is the boiling temperature so low? (BTW, it says
the freezing point is -96F. The boiling point is -79.1F, which isn't
much warmer. So it's only a liquid in between those two temps.)

Considering the name, it
sounds like it would come from Radium, and thus be a radioactive
substance.

It says it's named after radium, Ra. The atomic number of radon, Rn,
is 86. Of radium it is....88. That's the number of protons.
Electrons don't weigh much, but the more protons there are, the more
neutrons are needed to keep the protons in the nucleus from repelling
each other and splitting the nuclues 88 protons need a lot more than
88 neutrons, more like 150 or so. There is more to this than since I
was in school, but this is as far as I got.

Discovered in 1900.

I don't like to cite wikipedia, but what the heck:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon

Not cited http://www.radon.com/

"Radon is a significant contaminant that affects indoor air quality
worldwide. Radon gas from natural sources can accumulate in buildings
and reportedly causes 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the United
States alone.[1]" They may be counting miners in this, but I think
more than half of the 21,000 are homeowners. We were down to 35,000
traffic deaths a year, and now we're getting close to 50,000 again.

But if you have radon, which can measured for a 10 dollar test,

Yeah, you're right. One of the sources of radon is radium:

Isotopes

There are twenty known isotopes of radon. The most stable isotope
is 222Rn, which is a decay product (daughter product) of 226Ra, has a
half-life of 3.823 days and emits alpha particles. 220Rn is a natural
decay product of thorium and is called “thoron.” It has a half-life of
55.6 seconds and also emits alpha radiation. 219Rn is derived from
actinium, is called “actinon,” is an alpha emitter and has a half-life
of 3.96 seconds.

The full decay series of 238U which produces natural radon is as
follows (with half-lives):

238U (4.5 x 109 yr), 234Th (24.1 days), 234Pa (1.18 min), 234U
(250,000 yr), 230Th (75,000 yr), 226Ra (1,600 yr), 222Rn (3.82 days),
218Po (3.1 min), 214Pb (26.8 min), 214Bi (19.7 min), 214Po (164 µs),
210Pb (22.3 yr), 210Bi (5.01 days), 210Po (138 days), 206Pb (stable).

A long way to get lead. Now if we could only get gold.


"The danger of radon exposure in dwellings was discovered in 1984 with
the case of Stanley Watras, an employee at the Limerick nuclear power
plant in Pennsylvania. Watras set off the radiation alarms on his way
into work for two weeks straight while authorities searched for the
source of the contamination. They were shocked to find that the source
was astonishingly high levels of radon, around 100,000 Bq/m3 (2,700
pCi/L), in his house's basement and it was not related to the nuclear
plant. The risks associated with living in his house were estimated to
be equivalent to smoking 135 packs of cigarettes every day. Following
this event, which was highly publicized, national radon safety
standards were set, and radon detection and ventilation became a
standard homeowner concern.

"Radon is the second most frequent cause of lung cancer, after
cigarette smoking, and radon-induced lung cancer is thought to be the
6th leading cause of cancer death overall.[2][3]"

However, I do know that radiation will go right thru most
materials like concrete, plastic, wood, etc, so therefore it's not
radiation.

There is alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. Alpha can be stopped
comparitively easily. So it won't go through a cement floor. In fact I
think a piece of cardboard will stop it, but the earth is porous and
the gas (not the radiation) can seep through the "pores". The smallest
amount of alpha radiation is equivalent to a helium nucleus, I think,
2 protons and 2 neutrons. Since protons and neutrons weigh about 1,
then 4 of them would weigh 4, and that would account for why it goes
from 226Ra to 222Rn in one step. But if it is coming from a gas, a
atom in the air, and you've inhaled the air before the atom decays,
you get the radiation straight into the lung tissue. They didn't make
this up.

The more they know about the world, the more complicated it gets. They
answer one question and it gives rise to two more.

It has some positive uses, and some quack uses, too.

At least with asbestos, (even though I think that is
another over-rated scare, used to get revenue),

It does seem that way. It seems if the asbestos wrapping on pipes
isn't disturbed, it can stay the way it is for decades, but I haven't
looked in to it. Maybe even in the basement it falls apart?

there is an actual
substance that can be seen. Radon is like the invisible ghost out to
scare the money out of people's wallets. However, I am willing to
listen and learn more........ And just to learn, my house does not
have a basement and it has a ventilated crawl space. I'd assume I
dont have anything to worry about, right?


Good point. Tight homes will obviously have a higher concentration of
radon than those that leak like a sieve.


My house dont leak like a sieve, but it's not air tight. It was built
in the late 70's. Could use a little more insulation, but even if I
were to reside it, I'd never apply house wrap or styrofoam. My belief
is that both the house, and it's occupant need to breathe. Even in

I leave my windows open 7 or 8 months a year, and it leaks the rest of
the year too. I can even see light around the front door. I should
fix some of this stuff. I even have a dirty mark where, when the
furnace wasn't working right, the air was escaping through the mail
slot in the door. Have to wash it or paint.

But I passed the radon test in about 1990. I might fail now, but I
think the odds on that are very slim.

the winter I often open a window for at least a few minutes a few
times per week to bring in fresh air. There is less oxygen in the
outside air in the winter anyhow, because plants expel oxygen in the
summer, but in winter there are no plants to add to it. I have always
thought the reason people get sick more often in winter is because of
the lower oxygen levels in the air.

You want to get rich? Come up with and sell a CO2 generator to keep
plants healthy when the people and animals who live in the house are
on vacation.

Now my plants never seemed to suffer, but I was never gone for more
than 5 weeks once, and they were succulents. And some rich people
will buy anything just to be sure. Just send me my 10 percent, for
thinking of it.