What is Radon?

Radon is chemically inert so it does not harm cells in the body by poisoning or as a toxin. Radon is a gas and emits ionized particles of radiation that is harmful to those exposed to it.

To gain a better understanding I will address a short explanation of the physics of radon. Radon is a nobel gas (one of six that occur naturally in nature it is chemically inert.) and its atomic number is 86 on the periodic table. Radon is identified in the table with the letters RN. Radon has 86 protons and 86 electrons.

When one of those electrons is removed the atom is referred to as an ion and the process is called ionization.  Ionization of the radon gas emits three particles:  alpha, beta and gamma.

Beta particles, when released, move at 99% of the speed of light. A beta particle does not penetrate very far into fixed objects.  As an example, a beta particle will penetrate one half inch into aluminum. The beta particle will move several feet.

Alpha particles move a few inches and don't penetrate. Instead, they attach to objects and are the most dangerous (of the three particles)to people.

Gamma rays are pure energy, will travel farther and can penetrate into several feet of concrete. Gamma rays will be discussed in detail in another article because they pose a real risk in certain circumstances.

Now a look at the big picture: Radiation all starts with uranium 238 and decays into other products.  I will mention the properties of a few of them.

Radioactive isotopes are measured in half life's. A half life is the unit of time for half of the radiation to decay. Uranium 238, which produces radon, has a half life of 4.5x100 years. If you have radon in your home it will not be going away for a few thousand years.

Radon 222 is the decay product we are dealing with and it has a half life of 3.8 days. We will forgo the discussion of other decay products from uranium and will move directly to radon and its decay products.

Radon has several decay products, the first of which is Polonium 218. Polonium 218 emits dangerous alpha particles and has a half life of 3.05 minutes. Polonium 218 decays into Lead 214, which emits beta and gamma particles and has a half life of 26.8 minutes.

Lead 214 decays into Bismuth 214, which emits beta particles and has a half life of 19.7 minutes. Bismuth 214 decays into Polonium 214, emitting dangerous alpha particles with a half life of 1.6x10-4 seconds. The whole process terminates with the decay product Lead 210, which emits beta particles and has a half life of 19.4 years.

I will address how we measure radon in another article. For our purposes in this article we have only looked at the decay products of radon gas in your home.

It is obvious that the decay products emitting alpha particles are the biggest culprits. The alpha particles attach to your lungs when inhaled and damage cells, resulting in 22,000 deaths from lung cancer a year in the United States.

In summation, if we can mitigate radon before it decays, we can reduce or eliminate the hazards associated with radon and the decay products.

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