Radon: Characteristics, natural occurrence, technological enhancement, and health effects

INTRODUCTION Of all radioactive isotopes released by the nuclear industry, the one expected to cause the most harm to human health is not 131I, 137Cs, 9°Sr, SSKr, 3H, or 14C. Far more important than all of these combined, according to current theories, is radon-222 (222Rn). The type of natural radiation responsible for most fatalities according to current theories is not cosmic rays, radium in the earth and building materials, or potassium-40 in our bodies. The net effect of all of these taken together is to cause an average whole body dose of 80 mrem/yr 42 which, according to the BEIR Report 4, is expected to cause 3000 deaths per yr in the United States, whereas inhalation of environmental radon gas (actually, of its short half-life daughters) is expected to cause well over 5000. Of all known high radiation exposure situations, the largest number of excess cancers did not result from the atomic bomb attacks on Japan, or the X-ray treatments of ankylosing spondylitis patients in Britain, each of which has caused less than 150 extra cancers to date and is expected to eventually be responsible for double that number. Rather it is the uranium miner exposures to radon gas which have caused over 250 extra cancers and may eventually cause over 600. It has been said that on any time scale of a million years or longer, nuclear power is a method for cleansing the Earth of harmful radioactivity. This is due to the fact that burning up uranium reduces the amount of radon gas that will eventually evolve from it. From these examples it is clear that radon plays a very important role in environmental effects of radiation and of nuclear power. The purpose of this article is to introduce the reader to radon including its occurrence and behavior in nature, to lay out the evidence for the above mentioned health effects, to consider possible corrective measures, and to attempt to cast the problem in proper perspective.

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