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

[Andycgeo at aol.com]

I believe Stanley Watras, did not reside for a long period in the  house 
before it was mitigated. Also, if I remember correctly the house was  
mitigated (at a cost of about $30,000). Mr. Watras wrote a book about his   
experience. He may have sold the home after that. I am not sure about that. In  any 
case because he and his family lived there for not a long period  of time 
they may not show any ill effects.  
 
Andy George
 
 
In a message dated 4/12/2010 1:08:35 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
Mike.Brennan at DOH.WA.GOV writes:

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

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