Re: Electric chairs in our homes?

["Otto G. Raabe" <ograabe@ucdavis.edu>]

February 13, 1998
Davis, CA

If you remove the airborne particles from room air by filtration or
electrostatic precipitation, you could actually increase radiation doses to
the lung from airborne radon decay products because the so-called
unattached fraction would be elevated. The unattached decay products refers
to small molecular clusters of radioactive decay products that are not
attached to bigger airborne dust particles. The unattached decay products
deposit more readily in the bronchial airways during inhalation than the
somewhat larger particles because of the process of Brownian diffusion.
Almost all the alpha dose to the bronchial airways comes from the decay
products of radon rather than from the radon gas itself.

If an "electric chair" were placed in a room it would attract the
unattached radon decay products since they are electrostatically positively
charged. The unattached decay products have high electrical mobility. So
the chair could remove unattached decay products as they are formed in the
room air. Hence, this is a different process that separately filtering air
or running it through an electrostatic precipitator.

Otto
		*****************************************************
		Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
                [President, Health Physics Society, 1997-1998]
		Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health (ITEH)
		     (Street address: Old Davis Road)
		University of California, Davis, CA 95616
		Phone: 530-752-7754  FAX: 530-758-6140 [NEW AREA CODE]
		E-mail ograabe@ucdavis.edu