Radon test result

[bof]

Well Tritium has a half life of around 12 years, Uranium 235 (the stuff they make atomic bombs from) has a half life around 700million years.

[bof]

In message , Sam Nelson writes

They look cool, might get some, how bright are they?

[Jeff]

Radon is a naturally occuring gas (the heaviest) and is inert Tritium is a naturally occuring isotope of hydrogen and is not inert - it will readily combine with oxygen to form a liquid

Regards Jeff

[Chris Bacon]

Erm, rubbish - again!

What has the half-life got to do with the hazard?

[Grunff]

And?

[Grunff]

Bright enough to find your keying in the dark, but that's about it. I suspect you could probably just about read by the light if you held it up against the paper and held the paper up close to your face.

They are very cool - I always have one on my keyring, and also attached to torches (makes the torch muche easier to find in the dark).

[Jeff]

so imho its not a very good comparison as radon is a noble gas and tritium is a transitional isotope that will mainly be found as a liquid

Regards Jeff

[Grunff]

I don't follow - and I'm not just being difficult - I genuinely don't understand your argument. I'm not sure what point you are arguing against.

[Sam Nelson]

The older ones, like wot I've got, not particularly, but very neat when you drop your car-key on the path in winter. Visibility falls off very quickly in any natural light. The newer ones are apparently bigger and brighter, but quite a lot more expensive.

[Dave Liquorice]

Make your mind up or have you just decayed a bit?

[NikV]

?? what about tritium and deuterium - cant get much 'lighter' / 'smaller' than that - both are radioactive, /+geek more to the point its the ratio of protons to neutrons in the nucleus that is the main reason for explaining radioactivity - but not the only reason /-geek

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[NikV]

Something with a short half life will be more active than the same number of atoms of a substance with a longer half life so poses greater hazard for a shorter time (all other things being equal - the different types of radiation pose different hazards in different circumstances generally alpha if kept outside the body is relativly harmless since its penetrating power is small, it is stopped by the dead skin cells, gamma radiation is very penetrating but its ionising power is low so event per event does little damage, beta will penetrate and will ionise so outside the body this poses quite a hazard. The problem particulaly with radon is that its an alpha emmitter which because its a gas can penetrate into the body and the high ionisng power of the alpha radiation damages the living cells it comes into contact with.

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[Grunff]

Deuterium is NOT radioactive.

[NikV]

true - must engage brain before fingers BG

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yup.

I realised that I had an internal disconnect between 'dangerous' isotopes and 'normal naturally ocurring ones'

If you like the anthropic principle. We couldn't live on the earth if the air were dangerously radioactive, ergo all dangerously* radioactive compounds tend to accumulate towards the surface, or below it.

• by virtue of nastiness or concentration

[The Natural Philosopher]

site I looked up gave 4 days half life... Hmm.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Becaise it doesn't hang around being radioactive. Created by cosmic rays in upper atmosphere, and turns to deuterium or hydrogen by the time it gets to the surface?

Radoactivity is a fact of life. Its only when its in heavy concentrations, or associated with substances that get incorporated into the body structure, that it ooses serious risks.

Low l;evel tritium presumable occurs as heavy water, and teh body is constantly excreteing that so it won;t stock.

Contrast a flake of inhaled plutonium stuck in the lungs, forming a nice radioactive hots spot exactly wheer cancers are prone to form..and not decaying for hundreds of years either, and poisonous to boot.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Liquids wash away. Heavy liquids tend to end up on the sea floor. presumably.

[Chris Bacon]

Thank you :-). It's interesting to note that whilst smokers are at far greated risk of cancers than non-smokers, in this case they will be better protected from the effects of radon due to the increased thickness of mucus in the lungs... I add that useless information for nothing.

[Rick]

You did a hole under the house, and stick in a sump, its not a big hole. My kids built (7 & 8) built my sump before the floor want down. I recokn is probably a grand or so for a builder to retrofit a sump. Its all in the leaflets they send you.

You will probably have issues when you come to sell, and the buyer will start trying to knock the price down, so its a choice spend now or loose later .......

Rick