[ RadSafe ] Radon Daughters on People [was "Salsman warning"]

Mon Apr 12 13:22:10 CDT 2010

I do not think that 1,500 pCi of radon/liter of water will raise the  
background radiation significantly. Remember that only 50%-60% of the radon is  
degassed from the water (hot shower) which is diluted in the very large  
volume of air of the house. For all practical purposes, domestic water of  
10,000 pCi/L, may contribute about 
1 pCi/L in air. Radon in water at 1,500 pCi/L will raise the radon in air  
by about 0.15 pCi/L

Andy George

In a message dated 4/12/2010 1:47:51 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
hotgreenchile at gmail.com writes:

Hi Rick  & Mike:

The only time that I have seen radon levels as high as you  mention was
either 1) Directly associated with uranium mineralization or 2)  Associated
with faults and fractures in areas associated with elevated  levels of
uranium minerals.  A third possibility is with waters that  have high
concentrations of radon (e.g. the Alamosa Basin in Southern  Colorado) in
which the average waters contain 1500 pCi/L Radon.  I can  easily imagine
that taking a long shower with such water would raise the  background
concentration in a house significantly.

Placing that in  context, the total alpha activity of waters in a uranium
deposit can be in  excess of 1 million pCi/L.

I used radon emanometry to locate major  faults in Southern Colorado when 
the
surface expression was obscured by  soils.  In this case, several transects
normal to the projected fault  were used to identify its location based on
soil gas analysis and a  portable radon emanometer with a high degree of
accuracy.

Dan  ii

--
Dan W McCarn, Geologist
2867 A Fuego Sagrado
Santa Fe,  NM 87505
+1-505-310-3922 (Mobile - New Mexico)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com  (Private email)

-----Original Message-----
From:  radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu]  On Behalf Of Brennan, Mike
(DOH)
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010  11:07
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radon  Daughters on People [was "Salsman warning"]

Hi, Rick.

Here is a  somewhat more fleshed out  account:
http://www.radontestkits.com/radon_history.html

>From the  article:

Meanwhile, the Watras house was found to have 4,400 picocuries  of radon
per liter (pCi/L) of air in the cellar, 3,200 pCi/L in the living  room,
and about 1,800 pCi/L in each bedroom. (To put these numbers  into
context, having 4 picocuries of radon per liter of your indoor air  is
roughly equivalent to receiving 200 chest x-rays per year.) 

I  have never heard that anyone in the Watras family has developed  lung
cancer, and I am fairly sure that the word would have been  spread.
Still, I doubt even people who dismiss radon programs as useless  would
feel comfortable with 1,800 pCi/l in their bedroom.

As for  detecting radon daughters on clothing, it depends on the
concentration,  type of clothes, and instrument.  The situation I have
heard of it  happening most often was "back in the day" at Hanford.
Polyester apparently  develops a nice static charge, which attracts the
charged radon daughters  floating in the air.  As I understand it, it was
a source of great  humor for somebody being frisked out of a rad area
would have pants taken  because of "possible contamination".  If, after a
couple of hours  sealed in a plastic bag the levels dropped considerably,
they would get  their clothes back, but their work wardrobe would have
been shifted to the  denim end of the scale.  

-----Original Message-----
From:  radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu]  On Behalf Of Hansen,
Richard
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 9:27 AM
To:  radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Radon Daughters on People  [was "Salsman warning"]

Roy,

The incident you mention of the  nuclear power plant worker coming to
work contaminated with radon daughter  products is briefly described on
the Pennsylvania Department of  Environmental Protection web site:

The Saga of the Bureau of Radiation  Protection
...Another seminal event for the Bureau occurred on December 19,  1984.
Notification was received from the chief raddie at Limerick that  a
worker was coming to work contaminated. The contamination was  detected
by a portal monitor. The contamination was natural. The utility  had the
worker's home checked, and found extremely high concentrations of  radon
there. The Limerick chief raddie reasoned correctly that the problem  was
not a utility problem, but rather a state problem. The radon story  began
with that phone call.
In the early months of the radon project,  attention was confined to the
Boyertown area. A field office was  established in Gilbertsville. By the
end of 1985, the project included the  entire Reading Prong and adjacent
areas. By late 1986, the program began to  go  statewide.
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/brp/BRP_Info/BRP_History.htm

I  have a question for radsafe:

What are some methods to use in the field  to determine if low levels of
radiation detected on a person or clothing is  due to radon daughters
rather than radioactive contamination from other  sources?

Two situations come to mind. First, during a law  enforcement
investigation of possible illegal use of radioactive material,  the
persons involved (including the officers) may be checked for  radioactive
contamination using handheld survey meters. 
A second  situation would be emergency response personnel checking fellow
responders  and members of the public for contamination at the scene of a
potential  incident involving radioactive material.

Depending on the organization,  the personnel may have access to survey
meters with GM pancake detector  probes and NaI gamma detector probes
(such as 1-in. diameter by 1-inch long  NaI detectors). Hand-held
NaI-based radionuclide identification instruments  (or RIIDs) may be
available. Some organizations also have alpha-beta  scintillator
contamination probes, but most probably will not.  

Examples of this type of situation include training exercises  where
radiation levels exceeded twice background levels on some of the  Tyvek
suits worn by responders (especially during winter with low  humidity).
Another possible example is workers initially thought to be  contaminated
from a leaking sealed radioactive source because radiation  (actually
from radon daughters) was detected coming from workers' hands,  clothes,
and chairs.

Rick Hansen
Senior Scientist
Counter  Terrorism Operations Support Program
National Security Technologies, LLC,  for the U.S. Dept of  Energy
hansenrg at nv.doe.gov
www.ctosnnsa.org

_______________________________________________
You  are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list

Before posting a  message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood the
RadSafe rules.  These can be found  at:
http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html

For information on  how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings  
visit:
http://health.phys.iit.edu

_______________________________________________
You  are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list

Before posting a  message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood 
the RadSafe rules.  These can be found at: 
http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html

For  information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings 
visit:  http://health.phys.iit.edu