Radon SOLUTION

A Bit Of Science

Radon originates from Uranium 238, a radioactive element. Almost anywhere in the world you can find some radioactive Uranium 238 in the soil. Radioactive means that the element or atom occasionally loses part of itself and changes into a different element. During this radioactive decay the element releases energy and causes varying amounts of damage to whatever surrounds it. The average amount of time it takes before half of the element has decayed or changed is know as the elements half life. Uranium 238 has a 4.5 billion year half life. See the half lives listed below. The next element, Thorium 234 has only 24 days before half of it is gone.

The following is the decay series from Uranium 238 to Radium 226 (all are solid particles).

The next element after Radium 226 is RADON. See the decay series listed below. Radon is the only noble gas in the final decay chain. Noble gases have no charge (non-reactive) which means radon can freely move through the soil. Radon’s half life is about 4 days, which is just enough time to float through the soil, get into our homes and decay into a series of short lived charged particles that can get inhaled in the lungs and damage the DNA of lung cells.

More radon links