[ RadSafe ] Anyone have a comment ? about radon risk and226 Ra in milk ??

[Cary Renquist]

0.3 pCi/g is not all that small...  

For transuranics, the DL that we get from our vender on our urine bioassay 
samples is typically ~0.002 pCi/liter range (we request 0.006).  
Assuming unit density, that would be 0.002/1000 pCi/g (0.002 fCi/g).  
I think they typically do a 40-48 hour count with a surface barrier detector.

I'm sure that there is a technique for precipitating Ra out of a solution created by dissolving the drywall in something like sulferic acid...  Depending on the chemical yield, the numbers that they cite seem possible.

Cary

---
Cary Renquist
RSO, Eckert & Ziegler Isotope Products
Office: +1 661-309-1033
cary.renquist at ezag.com

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of Steven Dapra
Sent: Tuesday, 28 April, 2009 19:33
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Anyone have a comment ? about radon risk and226 Ra in milk ??

April 28

         Quoted from below:  "and indeed, 0.3 pCi/g is an EXTREMELY small 
amount."

         Yes it is, isn't it?  I wonder what kind of counter was used to 
count this three-tenths of a pico (trillionth of a) Curie, and how long the 
counter had to count in order to count so little.  Three-tenths of 
trillionth isn't very much. . . .  On the other hand, it is a whole three 
hundred quadrillionths!

Steven Dapra



At 04:32 PM 4/28/09 -0400, William Levy <Associated Radon Services> wrote:
>How about a CHP reply to the post
>
>  I made the following post ia Inspection News "By the way we are finding 
> some 226Ra in the recently tested drywall samples. Highest so far 0.332 
> pCi/g Is this enough for an indoor radon problem given the large areas of 
> sheetrock ?? don't know yet
>
>Bill
>
>William Levy
>
>Associated Radon Services
>
>wlevy at radonserv.com
>This thread is located at:
>http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_inspection/environmental-pests-health-safety-home-inspection-commercial-inspection/13134-new-mould-sampling-myths-page-new-post.html
>
>THIS IS THE REPLY BY:
>
>Caoimhín P. Connell
>Forensic Industrial Hygienist
>Forensic Industrial Hygiene
>
>
>William Levy says "By the way we are finding some 226Ra in the recently 
>tested drywall samples. Highest so far 0.332 pCi/g Is this enough for an 
>indoor radon problem given the large areas of sheetrock ?? don't know yet"
>
>Yes, William, we do know ­ No William it is not a problem, and indeed, 0.3 
>pCi/g is an EXTREMELY small amount. And by the way, I got a kick out of 
>the use of three significant digits in your post (0.332). If you were to 
>look at the data, you would probably find a standard deviation of 20 or 
>higher, therefore the first significant digit is not reliable much less 
>the last two. In any event even if it were 500 pCi/g, it still wouldn't be 
>an issue (my goodness, a glass of milk runs at about 1,200 pCi/g!)
>
>Considering for a moment that the average person reading this post has 
>about 150 grams of potassium in their body right now. William, as you sit 
>and read this, if you are a normal human, YOU are irradiating 4,400 Bq 
>(120,000 pCi) of K40, (that equates to about 4,400 radioactive 
>disintegrations per second) ... so ask your colleagues to step away from you 
>if you love them.
>
>Remember, not one study to date, NOT ONE, has demonstrated that radon as 
>seen in homes has been able to demonstrate that it increases the risk of 
>cancer one iota ­ and remember too, that the US EPA found that as radon 
>concentrations in a home go up, the cancer risk goes DOWN.
>
>Cheers!
>Caoimhín P. Connell
>Forensic Industrial Hygienist
>Forensic Industrial Hygiene
>
>  Anyone have a comment ??
>
>Bill Levy
>William Levy
>ASSOCIATED RADON SERVICES
>5136 SE Orange St.      Stuart, FL  34997
>800-741-0629     772-219-4334     Fax  772-287-1341
>www.radonserv.com           wlevy at radonserv.com