WHAT IS RADON?

Radon levels can actually reach much higher concentrations, especially at the lowest level of your home such as basements. The EPA indicates that at 4 pCi/L is the threshold to take immediate action. This has been likened to having 200 chest x-rays per year, about 50 times the suggested maximum amount of radiation you should be exposed to in a year for medical reasons. The EPA’s minimum threshold is 2 pCi/L, and even then it is stated that you should attempt to bring this concentration even lower. Needless to say, the EPA and Surgeon Generals Office have estimated that as many as 20,000 lung cancer deaths per year, are caused by radon (85-89% of those diagnosed with lung cancer did not live beyond 5 years, according to the EPA). Making radon the number one cause of lung cancer for non-smokers, and substantially increasing the risk of lung cancer for smokers.

So just what makes radon so dangerous? well, it’s radioactive, and as with all radioactive isotopes, it decays. The initial half life of radon is 3.8 days, after which time it will release an alpha particle and decay to Polonium 218. (In other words, a small atomic explosion will occur and release energy.) This daughter isotope has a half life of only 3 minutes before releasing another alpha particle and decaying into lead 214. The lead will then release a beta particle and decay into an unstable isotope of bismuth. This cycle continues, releasing two more alpha and beta particles, and eventually stopping with a stable isotope of lead. Each radioactive decay releases energy and can cause damage at the microscopic scale until the isotope reaches a point of stabilization.

When you or one of your family members decides to walk into a room with radon in it, this chain of radioactive decay will take place inside your lungs. The small particle bombardment on your soft lung tissue will cause damage to each cell it destroys. Even though our body does a very good job at replacing each damaged cell, there are some cells that mutate in rare occasions due to the abundance of repetitions our body has to go through and thus, lung cancer is created.