Re: Radon in urine

[Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 18:34 21.11.1996 -0600, you wrote:
>Recently, while working with an individual with In-111 skin
>contamination, I noticed a very prominent radon daughter spectrum in the
>worker's urine sample. Based on the concentrations in uCi/cc from this
>one urine sample, could some one give me a ballpark idea of what the
>concentration in his home may be? Would it come from radon in water or
>in air? I explained to the worker what I found and asked what type of
>house he lived in. It is a 30 year old frame structure with a basement.
>He did not appear to have any stonework inside.
>Pb-214 : 8.112E-3 uCi/cc
>Bi-214 : 2.563E-2 uCi/cc
=================================================================
Roger,

It is hard to believe what you saw, though I do not doubt, that you saw it:
There is much contradiction in your message, which I do not blame on you.
Pb-214 and Bi-214 should be in equilibrium - they are not. Radon inhaled
would result in exhalation of most of the radon. Radon daughters will be
deposited in the lung, from where they will only slowly be dissolved and
distributed in the body by the blood stream. Excretion will be slow.
Drinking water with enhanced radon or radium concentration will not be an
explanation of the concentrations observed: 8 nCi/cc is 8 uCi/l. Even
assumiong equilibrium and 100% transfer from the GI tract to urine (which is
nonsense!!) would require water with a radon concentration of 296 000 Bq/l,
which is higher by orders of magnitude than the highest water concentrations
observed. 

I checked with a collegue, who is not only well experienced in radon, but
also in excretion analysis and he could not imagine a contamination like this.

Did you have any contamination? What about your shielding of the Germanium
detector? Can it be natural background from your walls? Was the shielding
closed well?

Sorry, no reasonable explanation, except my opinion that the result seems to
me unlikely.

Franz
Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 WIEN
AUSTRIA/EUROPE
Tel./Fax:	+43-1-4955308
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e-mail:		schoenho@via.at