Radon-222: The Colorless, Odorless Radioactivity in Our Homes
Many people are surprised to hear that the second most frequent cause of lung cancer in the United States actually comes from something completely natural. It is not from car exhaust, smog, or second hand smoke. The culprit is Radon-222, a naturally occurring radioactive isotope of Radon. As the title suggests, it exists naturally in a gaseous state and is undetectable by smell or sight.
In recent years, homes and office buildings have become increasingly better sealed and insulated in order to reduce air conditioning and heating costs. While this is of course completely logical from an economic standpoint, there are many unforeseen side effects that may result from these precautions. One of those potential issues is indoor air quality, which is a major problem in the developed world. What happens when particulate matter, carcinogens, or Radon flow into a space, but can't easily escape? They become trapped and propagate through the building, and over time become potentially lethal irritants to our lungs.
Radon can seep through cracks in and around homes, causing damage to lung tissue for anyone unfortunate enough to live in close proximity to the gas. While Radon-222 has a half life of only 4 days, its daughter product can attach to dust particles and be readily inhaled. This may seem like a fringe issue, but it is estimated that 1 in 15 homes have elevated levels of Radon. The EPA also recommends tests twice a year to ensure that levels are kept below the maximum allowable concentration.
Hope everyone enjoyed today's article! If you learned something, feel free to leave a comment or an upvote. See you next time!
Welcome young Stemian! The title was promising and yes, Radon-222 is related to lung cancer, but if you ate targeting steemSTEM tag, you will need to include some solid scientific references like: 1, 2, 3 and you need to provide some discussion.
If well referenced and discussed, your posts could get highly valuable votes.
Good luck, and as you are young, try to find steemSTEM mentor to guide you.
Thank you for the constructive criticism. I was going for a more casual post, but I think your suggestions to add some more robust references and potentially some discussion questions at the end are valuable and I will add them in my next post. Much appreciated!
I've seen that your reputation is 33, thus you must have joined Steemit recently.
About a month ago there was an initiative in STEM community to support new members via the mentoring program. If you are interested, join STEM Discord server and ask for help.
And my general advice is to make longer posts.
If it's 1 or 2 "screens" long it will probably stay unnoticed by Curie or STEM.
Oh ok I did not know that. I will check the discord server out for sure. Seriously, I appreciate the help quite a lot. You just don't get this kind of genuine interest on many platforms.
That's steemSTEM thing ;)
You have a minor misspelling in the following sentence:
It should be unforeseen instead of unforseen.