Radon Entry into the Home

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RADoN Physiology and the Home
Text Box: Uranium-235 decays into a series of elements to ultimately produce Radon-222. Radon is a gas which has a half life of 3.8 days. This means that within 3.8 days half of the Radon will decay to a lower atomic weight element. It is when the elements decay that the danger occurs. Each decay is marked with the release of an Alpha particle which consists of 2 Neutrons and 2 Protons. They initially travel at about 1/2 the speed of light—93,000 miles/sec. Though they are small, their speed causes them to do great damage when impacting the DNA in a cell. They also have a great risk of striking and knocking off electrons called Beta particles from other atoms which turns these atoms into ions. These ions will also cause damage to body tissue. The third release that occurs with the decay of these elements is pure energy Gama radiation. Just as Alpha and Beta particles and Gama radiation are released when Radium decays they are also released as the decay products themselves decay. As a gas, Radon is breathed in and then out. The decay products are solids however and they will plate or attach to the lining of the lung and stay there for a period of time. The Decay products have a much shorter half life and have a greater chance of decaying while on the lining of the lung making their risk much greater. As you can see from the above the goal is to reduce or minimize the amount of Radon entering the home and living space and rapidly remove decay products when possible. We deal effectively with both of these in our mitigation strategies. It is common knowledge that heat rises. The home works with this principal and as the warm air within the home moves up (stack effect) and out of the upper levels of the home it will produce a slight vacuum. Additionally, bathroom and kitchen exhausts and other components will increase this vacuum. Radon is pushed up into this vacuum from atmospheric pressure pressing down on the soil and other sources of pressure such as wind pushing against a hill and water draining into the soil forcing gasses up and out of the soil. Though it is a good idea to caulk and seal leaks cracks in basement floors and joints where the concrete meets walls etc. Radon will find a new way to seep into the living space.

Radon Physics and Physiology