[ RadSafe ] recent comments on "radon"

[Franz Schönhofer]

RADSAFErs,

Without picking out some names from the many recent comments on "radon" I
would like to remind you (sorry, some used the correct wording), that these
claimed effects cannot be due to "radon", because radon is a gas, even more
a noble gas and an alpha-emitter, which does not adhere to clothes and can
only be measured directly with somewhat tricky methods. What adheres is the
radon progeny and they are not easy to be measured and especially
distinguished from other radionuclides. 

The Kuznetz method is an excellent method for radon daughters which is even
used to distinguish between natural and artificial radionuclides in
automatic measurement stations. In the case of an accident with release of
large amounts of artificial radionuclides you should forget about any
gross-alpha or gross-beta or gross-alpha-beta measurements. What one needs
is nuclide specific information about what one breathes, what is deposited,
what is in food, how it migrates in soil etc. I would have believed that it
is accepted that the consequences of a nuclear accident will depend on what
radionuclides are released, are inhaled and ingested. I have nowhere found
any dosefactors for gross-alpha or gross-beta contamination!!!! Have you???
I have been fighting against this "gross"- measurements for decades, but
they seem to still exist. A country spending billions of dollars for a war
far, far away should be able to afford Germanium detectors and people to run
them? You might know that I have very extensive experience with
environmental surveillance systems and therefore also on the Chernobyl
accident and its consequences.

Back to "radon": Regarding the behaviour of Rn-222 in buildings, from
drinking water, the dependency of its concentration in indoor air on all
kind of parameters has been so extensively researched, that I would say,
that the comments on it are not really "beating a dead horse", but it is
beating the horses carcass. I attended three weeks ago a great conference on
NORM in Marrakesh, Morocco and the organizers requested in their invitation
that no papers on "Radon" should be submitted. About 20 years ago we had in
Vienna a meeting with a representative of the European Union and he clearly
stated that no funds will be provided any more for radon research, because
such a lot of money has already been spent and one wants to see now results
from the research performed. I might add, that I was involved in the
Austrian "Radon in Indoor Air"-project and have been very busy with radon
and radium in drinking water both in Austria and Poland. 

You might draw the conclusion that I am not a newcomer in these fields, so
please take a moment to consider my comments. Any serious discussion is of
course very welcome.

Best regards to everyone on RADSAFE,

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA