Radon is a colorless and odorless radioactive gas that is naturally present in all layers of rock throughout the planet. It is formed from radium-226, which in turn is the decay product of uranium-238, constitutive of all kind of rock in variable quantities.
As a gas, it naturally extracts from the soil to the surface and diffuse in the atmosphere.
Why is radon dangerous ?
Radon-222 has a half-life of 3.8 days, which means that 50% of radon particules contained in an air sample will break down after 3.8 days. It is enough for radon gas to come up at the surface and to be inhaled by humans. The alpha enrgy produced once radon and radon daughters decays is likely to damage the cells that constitute lungs, ending up in the long term in the development of lung cancer.
According to WHO, radon is the second cause of lung cancer after smoking.
Is radon dangerous everywhere ?
As present in all rockecs all around the world, radon can potentially be a problem everywhere on earth. Hopefully, in open air, such as outside, radon is almost never a problem as it diffuse in the atmosphere and almost always in very low concentrations.
It is basically when it accumulates inside where it can concentrate that it can be a significant health issue and be found in very important concentrations.
Many scientific papers tend to estimate that the importance of the source (bedrock) is responsible for about 30% of the radon level detect in a building. 70% would be the result of habbits of the occupants but also the quality of the building itself.
How to know if radon is a problem for me ?
Being colorless and odorless, the only way to know if radon is a problem inside a house or a workplace is to perform a measurement. It can easily be done by ordering passive detectors such as Radtrak3 by Radonova that can detect alpha energy from emited from radon.
The best is to use detector manufactured and analyzed by an ISO 17025 accredited lab as it is the only standard that can guarentee the efficiency and reliability of the measurement.
Contact us to order your radon detectors
More than 30 years experiences in more than 80 countries
ISO 17025 accredited radon laboratory
State of the art production and analysis processes
Worldwide shipping with UPS express savers
