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Environment

Periodic Graphics

Periodic Graphics: What are the risks of radon?

Chemical educator and Compound Interest blogger Andy Brunning explains how radon can waft into our homes and what risks the radioactive element poses.

by Andy Brunning, special to C&EN
August 30, 2021 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 99, Issue 31
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Most Popular in Environment

 

Infographic on the risks of radon. 

Naturally occurring radon accounts for most of the background radiation we're exposed to. Higher radon levels in buildings pose a risk to our health.

Uranium isotopes in the ground undergo radioactive decay into other elements, including radium, which decays to produce radon. Radon itself decays into other radioactive elements.

A diagram shows the decay chain that produces radium.

Radon is a gas that emanates from the ground, particularly in areas with lots of granite or shale in the soil. Radon accumulates in confined parts of houses, particularly in basements.

A diagram shows the scale on which radon is measured in picocuries per liter of air. The average indoor level is 1.3 pCi/L, 2.7 is the World Health Organization radon action level, and 4.0 is the US Environmental Protection Agency radon action level.

Radon can be detected via α track detectors, in which α particles produced by radon make microscopic damage tracks on a plastic material; activated carbon adsorption, in which activated carbon adsorbs radon and the emitted radiation is measured; electret ion chambers, in which negative ions created from radon radiation reduce the charge on a Teflon disk; and continuous monitoring methods, which continuously measure and record radon and its decay products.
One in 15 US homes are estimated to have radon levels above the EPA’s action level. Radon is a major cause of lung cancer and causes an estimated 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the US.


To download a pdf of this article, visit http://cenm.ag/radonrisk.

References used to create this graphic:

Hanson, David J. “Living with Radon.” Chemical & Engineering News, Aug. 22, 2011.

World Health Organization. “Radon and Health.” Feb. 2, 2021.

Zeeb, Hajo, and Ferid Shannoun, eds. WHO Handbook on Indoor Radon: A Public Health Perspective. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2009.

A collaboration between C&EN and Andy Brunning, author of the popular graphics blog Compound Interest

To see more of Brunning’s work, go to compoundchem.com. To see all of C&EN’s Periodic Graphics, visit cenm.ag/periodicgraphics.

 

Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2023 American Chemical Society

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