Question

Radon as a Pollutant Hide Assignment Information Instructions Write a one page report on Radon as a pollutant'in North American buildings. Where does it come from? What does it do? How is it detected? One page (NOT including references and headers) 12 point font, single line spacing. Due Date Jul 2. 2020 11:59 PM

Answer 1

Radon Air Pollutant- Radon is a radioactive gas you cannot see, feel, taste or smell. It starts out as uranium, a heavy metal found in ground and most rocks on the planet. When uranium decays, it turns into another metal called radium. When radium breaks down, it becomes radon. Radon exists naturally in the ground, and if there is radon ground below your home, it will find its way through cracks, gaps and porous materials into your home. The same is the case in North American Buildings. Following are the common causes of radon in home, where it is trapped and can build to dangerous levels.

Where does it come from (indoor)-

i. Rocks- Rocks and stones contain veins of radioactive materials that decay into radon. This radon in the rocks below your foundation is released directly through cracksinto homes.

ii. cracks and gaps- While crawlspaces can suffer from a radon problem, cement foundation, whether slab or basement, are perticularly concerning because of cements porous nature. Coupled with any cracks in the foundation and gaps in your flooring and around pipes, and radon has easy access to home.

iii. Natural Stone- Any natural stone in home may contain trace amounts of radioactive elements like uranium and radium. These elements are naturally occuring and decay into the radioactive gas like radon. The most common culprit of natural stone radon gas emission is granite. Though granite counter top create only a small fraction of radon gas, and as there is no safe level of radon, any emission is dangerous.

iv. Well Water- Well water is in close contact with rocks and soil containing radon.There are two ways to fix radon in your well water- Granular activated carbon filter for a point of entry attack, and aeration devices that bubble air through water and carry released gas through vent to outside.

What does it do?

When you breath in radon, it gets into the lining of your lungs and gives off radiation. Over a long time that causes damage to the cells in lungs and lead to lung cancer. Radon is second biggest cause of lung cancer after Cigarette smoking.

How it is detected?

Radon Test Devices

Radon tests detect either radon gas directly or the daughter products of radon's radioactive decay. There are two categories of radon test devices, passive and active. Passive devices require no electrical power and generally trap radon or its daughter products for later analysis by a laboratory. Passive devices include charcoal canisters, charcoal liquid scintillation detectors, alpha track detectors and electret ion detectors.

i. Charcoal canister and charcoal liquid scintillation devices absorb radon or its products on to the charcoal. In the laboratory, the radioactive particles emitted from the charcoal are counted directly by a sodium iodide counter or converted to light in a liquid scintillation medium and counted in a scintillation detector.

ii. The alpha track detectors have a plastic film that gets etched by the alpha particles that strike it. In the laboratory, the plastic is chemically treated to make the tracks visible, then the tracks are counted.

iii. Electret ion detectors have a Teflon disc, which is statically charged. When an ion generated from radon decay strikes the Teflon disc, the electrical charge is reduced. In the laboratory, the charge reduction is measured and the radon level is calculated.

Typically, all of the passive devices, except electret ion detectors, are available in hardware stores or by mail; electret ion detectors are usually only available through laboratories. The passive devices are generally less expensive than active devices and may require little or no special training for their use. Of the passive devices, the charcoal canisters and charcoal liquid scintillation detectors are typically used for short-term tests.

In contrast to passive devices, active devices need electrical power and include continuous monitoring devices (continuous radon monitors, continuous working level monitors). Active devices detect and record radon or its daughter products continuously. They are generally more expensive and require professionally trained testers for their operation.