[ RadSafe ] Residential radon risk

[John Jacobus]

It seemed obvious as my father who smoked was always
"hacking."

Maybe I missed the point, but why are smokers exposed
to less radon?  What about non-smokers in the same
house?

--- Bernard Cohen <blc+ at pitt.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> John Jacobus wrote:
> 
> >I was under the impression that the physiology of
> >smoking resulted in a build up of muscus in the
> >bronchi, etc. that "protected" the cells from the
> >radon progeny emissions.  Does that sound
> reasonable?
> >
>     ---This is irrelevant to the observed fact that
> smokers are exposed 
> to slightly less radon, on average, than
> non-smokers. But to respond 
> directly, smokers have far fewer cilia that normally
> expel radon 
> daughters from the bronchial region so one would
> think they get much 
> higher radiation exposure from a given radon
> inhalation, but this was 
> found not to be the case. This is explained by the
> increased mucus flow 
> in smokers largely makeing up for the missing cilia.
> 
> . . .

+++++++++++++++++++
"Embarrassed, obscure and feeble sentences are generally, if not always, the result of embarrassed, obscure and feeble thought."
Hugh Blair, 1783

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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