[Greenbuilding] New Thread on Polonium & Radon

Carmine Vasile gfx-ch at msn.com
Sat Nov 3 18:03:16 CDT 2018


Dan: Excellent suggestion to start a new thread on Radon, but it must include Polonium-218/214/210 because it takes about 20 minutes after a fresh batch of Radon-222 atoms are dissolved in drinking water for the activity of Polonium-218 to grow from zero to that of its parent. Polonium is a toxic heavy metal that is also radioactive. It is regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, but the EPA doesn't enforce this provision.
    In April 2015, in response to a complaint that NYS Governor Cuomo continues to ignore, a director in his Health Department, Stephen Gavitt, wrote: "The laboratory test results you provided with your letter indicated a radon concentration of 387 pCi/L. Even when the total theoretical alpha activity from radon and its decay products reaches its maximum value of about 1120 pCi/L at 5 hours, the yearly effective equivalent dose due to radon ingestion is about 3.7 mrem/year; the dose contribution from radon decay products accounts to only 0.4 mrern/year. These dose estimates are calculated according to the dose coefficients published in the NAS report, and assuming a "base case" diffusion of radon into the stomach wall and an ingestion of 2 liters per day of water. " (Quote from http://www.gfxtechnology.com/Cuomo.pdf)
    Nevertheless, the public wells feeding my house were not closed to protect us. Recently, a group of woman conducted their own Polonium Survey; summarized @ http://www.gfxtechnology.com/PoSurvey.htm. It's based on Gavitt's calculations, which you can use to analyze your drinking water.
Best regards,
Carmine

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