Radon, A Radioactive Gas, Healthy?...or Harmful.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Visiting the Free Enterprise Health Mine in Montana seeing what visitors get to see and how radioactive it is. Then to a uranium mine with a very high level of radon gas that contaminates you with radioactive dust when you walk inside. Finally down in a crawl space to talk about how radioactive residential radon is compared to the other locations.
If you want to learn more about the Free Enterprise Radon Health Mine check them out.
www.radonmine.com/
If you are looking for uranium ore for element collections.
uraniumstore.com
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599productions.com
#radiation #radioactive #radon
I found it strange that some people feared Chernobyl radiation in the US, yet, have not had their homes tested for Radon.
To be fair. Radon in a home basement is (usually low) -negligible- , unless you live in an contaminated area. Where as radioactive fallout is (also) -much- -more- damaging to your health.
Edit:
I have tried to do research on the topic of radon gas in U.S. homes and found that many of the articles that show up are actually ads for a company selling radon reducing equipment. But I have gathered that yes Radon is a danger to public health and testing is a good idea. Radioactive fallout from nuclear disasters and nuclear testing is also extremely bad for public health.
So my original comment was uninformed and not worth posting!
@@jakelong4271 i live in Iowa, we are told it comes from the clay. a family i did work for- the grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer, one of his children already had lung cancer currently, so they tested the other children. 5 ouf 7 children(adults in their 30s-40s) were ultimately diagnosed with lung cancer. radon in the family house was tested and found to bo something like 30x the acceptable level.
Amazing work thanks for educating me. Is radon like tecnicium from molybdenum
@@builderman912 My home in Indiana was about 7 - 8x the acceptable level of 4pCi/L of Radon
US nuclear testing has killed as many as 700,000 people here in the states whereas Chernobyls death toll is under 150,000.
“The good news is that my arthritis isn’t bothering me that much, the bad news is that I now have lung cancer.”
It's worth mentioning that radon is a noble gas (inert) that sails right through any kind of filter based mask. It's not just dust, but radon decay progeny that cause contamination. I would have liked to have seen a measurement from the inside of your mask with the filters removed...
He was wearing cartridges with P100 and activated charcoal. The charcoal does have the ability to adsorb inert gasses I believe.
The half life of radon is hours however the contaminated dust could be carrying uranium and other daughters of uranium that will put alpha sources in his lungs.
The half-life of radon (Rn222) is 3.8 days and what it decays into are isotopes of lead, polonium and bismuth. If I was hanging out in that mine for a long period of time for many days it would start to be a problem. My short exposure for this video wasn’t that big of a deal.
So I guess the mask he was wearing would keep radioactive dust out of his lungs, but not keep the radon out? So the mask isn't useless, just he has to still limit his time exposed the the radon.
Nobel gasses are not affected by van der waals forces even (no differntial charge distribution for a molecule composed of a single atom). So no. Activated charcoal will not filter radon.
Hey Drew, your mentioning of the people bringing home water infused with radium reminded me of the story of American industrialist, sportsman and socialite Eben Byers. He gained notoriety in the 1930s for giving himself multiple radiation-induced cancers from the over-indulgence of consuming _Radithor_ , a popular patented medicine at the time which was made from radium dissolved in water.
In 1927, Byers had started taking _Radithor_ at the bequest of his doctor when he had injured his arm after falling from the upper berth of a railway sleeping car. Byers began taking multiple doses per day, claiming it gave him a “toned up feeling” , but stopped taking the medication in October of 1930 after the effects faded. This was after some 1400 doses. He had also started to lose weight, had serious headaches and his teeth began to fall out. In 1931, the Federal Trade Commission asked him to testify about his experience, but he was too sick to travel so the FTC sent a lawyer to his home to collect his statement. The lawyer had reported back that Byers’ “whole upper jaw, excepting two front teeth and most of his lower jaw had been removed” and that "All the remaining bone tissue of his body was disintegrating, and holes were actually forming in his skull."
Eben Byers died on March 31, 1932. The said he died from radiation poisoning, even though his death was due to multiple cancers. His body was laid to rest in a family mausoleum within a lead-lined casket in Allegheny Cemetery.
I heard about this story when I visited Pittsburgh, PA.
That's an interesting story. It makes me think about a lot of people I know that have missing teeth in middle age or all teeth pulled so they have to use dentures. My father in law had that happen in his twenties. I always wondered what causes this problem in young and middle aged people. Could it be an unknown exposure to radiation?
Would have nothing to do with radiation exposure.
@@choppinbroccoli7037 At least here in the Netherlands but also in other countries, this is due to the way money is spent on dental healthcare.
When I get all of my teeth removed and get dentures, it is all payed by government. But when I have teeth beeing repaired, I have to pay a lot for that myself (and get a part of that back by private insurance for teeth).
This system has been in place in many countries at least in Europe for a long time.
Historicly, people did not have much of the bad bacteria in the mouth for a long time but these became more widespread especially with the extra amounts of sugars in food. Those effects got worse and worse and if you have alcohol and food without extra good dentalcare, you will get infections and loosing teeth and the cheapest way to get rid of that is to just remove those teeth.
22:13
My mom worked with radon no mask making Radon seeds in thin-walled gold tubes for early cancer treatments. That was in the late forties at Mayo clinic up in Minnesota. She took a 27-roentgen dose in 18 months then back to school to get her masters in Nuclear Physics meet my dad and never worked again. I think some of her late life hand problems were from the exposure working around a stack of lead blocks looking in a mirror over the blocks pre-waldo era.
Pre Waldo era?
@@NiceMuslimLady en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_manipulator
Yes we did that too reaching over. large lead blocks to do some procedures.
Radon is a Nobel gas, a mask wouldn't help. Nobel gasses can't be filtered out. The only way to safely work around a Nobel gas without exposure unless you use a self contained atmosphere.
Radon therapy as a spa treatment is equivalent to a salt cave or hot spring, it’s a statistical placebo. Radon testing is a part of a home inspection bc it is the second leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking in America.
Radon is only the second leading cause of lung cancer if you happen to live in a uranium mine. All the data the EPA has on radon exposure causing lung cancer comes from uranium miners only.
@@RadioactiveDrew that is simply not true.
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking - EPA. I tested my house with two different radon detectors and found rates as high as 17 picocuries per liter (at the under-bathtub access port where the tub plumbing is). I've been monitoring this gas continuously for several years. It is now down to less that one picocurie per liter at mattress level in my bedroom, due to the radon extraction fan I installed, that runs 24/7/365. Every so often (like the recent PG&E power outage) the fan will shut down, and the radiation spikes to about five times normal levels within 12 hours, and takes several days to return to normal.
they say it's the second leading cause but don't give the exact number....ok, it may be the second leading cause but lets put it this way out of a 100 people who got lung cancer how many got it from smoking ? 99 ....1 from Radon (maybe)...personally I think the whole thing is a big scam, instead of all that expensive equipment, just leave your doors and windows open a little...this all came about because of the big move to have well sealed houses, well that has other unintended consequences, like not letting germs and viruses out of your house....oh well, it's all in your mind anyway..
thats crazy, why is the reason there is so much radon in the air?
@@v44n7 Natural radioactive decay of uranium and thorium in granite, for instance. There are maps of the USA that show the levels across the country.
Living in Sweden we have a very good understanding (our experts, not me or the general public) that radon is a dangerous and carcenogenic gas and we have tests done in every building built in the 60's and 70's due to this very issue.
The statistics tell us that if you're exposed to high levels of radon you have an almost guaranteed risk of developing lung cancer within 40 years.
For those who dont know: You basically dont survive lung cancer unless you're lucky or get screened very early on.
I have arthritis and i have had it all my life (permanent inflammation in my knee joints due to working out with much too heavy weights and not getting the inflammation checked early enough.
Living in an apartement with about 5x the allowed dose of radon, i can without question say that it didnt help me what so ever when it comes to managing my pain levels.
There is a percerntage (around 14%) of americicans that are dumb as a box of rocks. They are also empowered to be the most vocal.
Its not a guarantee to develop lung cancer. Per 100Bq/m³ the chances raise by like 15%. Theres no guarantee for anything, but everyone should get this checked in their homes.
I live in a very radon-heavy area. In the 40s and 50s they would use the uranium mill railings as a way to build up house foundations, which inevitably led to problems later on. Thankfully it’s been mostly fixed as there was a huge cleanup effort in the 80s and 90s, but sometimes older buildings still deal with it.
In high school, other students liked to joke about the basement being full of radon just because one of the buildings was from the 50s. There was one story that really creeped me out where a basement room constructed deep underground had a massive radon problem and the room had to be abandoned and locked with a steel door. Rumor said it was used as a food storage room for the lunch ladies and it was left behind, meaning if the story held any truth to it, the mold would likely kill you first. Still a cool spooky story, though.
In that basement situation the radon could get pretty high. Not sure enough to do anything to you with short visits down there to get some food. I've heard of this problem before in Grand Junction, with mill tailings being used in building construction.
@@RadioactiveDrew Eeyup, Grand Junction is notorious about this. The whole valley can have these issues but GJ is probably the biggest offender. A lot of the older buildings here have to get tested every couple of years. The city was pretty polluted in general; you can walk down to the shore of the Colorado River where a bunch of old auto junkyards used to stand (it’s been converted into a public park) and see old bits of metal and concrete sticking out. The radon and mill tailings are the worst offenders, though.
Museum of Western Colorado did an interesting timeline on the use of Uranium in Western Colorado and Eastern Utah, if you want to find out more info 👍
Thanks for the info. I’ve heard of this problem with Grand Junction. I want to check it out more next time I’m through there.
Your production is great. Your subject matter is both fascinating and slightly dangerous/ exciting. You should have 100x the subs.
I’m getting there. Thanks for the kind words.
Years ago when I was a Realtor, I found a plate anchored in concrete in the ground that warned nuclear material that had been dumped in that location. I imagine it is still there. It is located in a subdivision called South Park Ranches in Park county, CO. I do not remember the lot number. Later I was told by an oldtimer that it had probably been dumped there from Rocky Flats plant.
That explains the stories I hear about those people in South Park. Especially 4 of the 3rd graders
There's a Superfund site in CO where some waste material from Rockey Flats was used to pave public roads.
Colorado has an interesting nuclear history with all the uranium mining and with Rocky Flats being located there.
Interesting video! That radon clinic gave me a distinct ]Shining', potentially "here's Johnny" vibe! On a serious note, the fact that during the 24 hours that elapsed after your shirt was contaminated, atoms of polonium-218, lead-214, bismuth-214, all appeared and disappeared and it ended up with a residue of lead -210 is astonishing....the transmutation-thing is what is so fascinating about radioactivity to me.
That is one of the most fascinating things about radioactive isotopes. When I first found that they can change into other isotopes with different chemical properties from releasing radiation I was blown away.
Great video, thank you for what you do, radiation gets a bad reputation, and you are helping to educate people. If you ever get the notion to explore in western Colorado look me up, I know most of the mines in the west. I worked in the uranium industry most of my life, in both milling and mining. Started at the mill in Uravan in the 1970s working for Union Carbide right out of college. Next, I worked with Max Anderson, we built a mill to reprocess the tailings pile from the old Vanadium Corporation of America (VCA) mill site on the San Miguel River. After that I spent a few years as a contract uranium miner at the LP-21 mine; super dangerous, always interesting and very lucrative.
Back to school in 1980 so I could become a radiation safety officer but by the time I got the education uranium mining in the USA was dead. From there it was on to mine safety but in coal, gold and silver. In 2006 George Glazier started up Energy Fuels Resources in an attempt to revive the US uranium industry, I hired on as corporate safety director and acting RSO. We had so many mines it was crazy, and they were my playground for a few years.
I was approached by a group of renowned geologists during this time, and I arranged and led several explorations of mines in the Uravan Uranium Belt. Their goal was to discover new minerals associated with Uranium and Vanadium deposits and man did they discover a lot of new minerals. After about the fiftieth new mineral they discovered they gave me the honor of having one named after me. It is called Fulbrightite, and it is not only beautiful it is very unique. It is an extremely rare calcium vanadyl arsenate, basically it is the arsenate analogue of Sincosite. It has been identified in only one other mine in the world to my knowledge, and that is the Rovnost mine in the Czech Republic, but we found it first in the Packrat mine by Gateway, CO. Best pics are on mindat.org and they should have my contact info.
Thanks for all that info and for all the other comments. Next time I’m out in the Uravana area, maybe this summer I’ll try and hit you up…if you still live out that way.
Radon gas is wild . I'm trained in NBC in the military. My wife and I bought a house in Pa that was a fixer upper . Condition of sale was a Radon test that I did that was sent to a colleague. Was well in limit. Two house down from me was the same . It was vacant for 3 years when I moved in . It was vacant for 5 years previously. Someone bought it . Did a test and was dangerous in Radon. Retested my home and it was off the chart . Did the counter measure and it was down below normal. Turned off the counter measure and 3 month later the levels were once again at the same level it was when I bought the house. Later to find out that Radon will look for. Any and all ways to escape. And sometimes temporary
SMR As I drive around North New Jersey, any time I see a VERTICAL PVC plastic pipe on the side of the house with a baffle or a cap on it that connects to a basement or lower level of the house, that house HAS a radon problem ! There is one down the block from me just like that.
It's amazing to me that people purposefully go down into a radon filled area for "health reasons". When I bought my house, I had the basement tested for radon prior to the purchase. The levels were absolutely staggering and led me to force the prior owner to install a radon reduction system in the basement, at their expense, in order for the deal to close. They had to perform three installations in order for the radon to get down to safe levels. Prior owner was not happy about the expense... Since radon exposure is the second highest cause of lung cancer, behind only cigarette smoking, I believe it was absolutely necessary.
I think that stat of radon being the second leading cause of lung cancer is extremely misleading. I plan on talking about it further in a future video.
@@RadioactiveDrew Looking forward to it for sure!
This is the first information ever that I have been 'exposed' to that says there could be beneficial effects with radon. (Obviously, lower levels of radon). Thank You.
Tom Scott has a ‘scintillating’ video about such a mine where double-blind studies could be conducted
this is right in there with the "health benefits" of radium....
No quite. Everything is about dose. Also the human body with introduce radium into the bones because it mimics calcium. Radon is very different.
The average where I live is around 4 pCi/L, and it's considered normal. There are multiple underground floors below this particular building from where the air is vented out after heat exchange. However, the amount can vary considerably from building to building as some gather more radon from the ground below than others.
4 pCi/L may be 'normal' but the EPA (I think it was them) states that there is no 'safe' level. 4 is the level above which to take remedial action.
That’s a ridiculous thing to say, that there is no safe level of radon exposure. We are exposed to radiation everyday yet not everyone dies from cancer. Some people are exposed to a much higher constant radiation level than most. Like air crews on commercial flights. They aren’t all dying from cancer so something doesn’t add up with the whole no safe level.
Finally!
I have been searching for the relative relationship between the different radiation measurements!
Now I know that I don't need to be concerned with the 4.0 picoCuries long term average that I am measuring in my basement.
Thank you!
4 picoCuries is so low. When it starts to get into the hundreds I can start to detect the radiation on the Radeye B20.
In a nearby village (Menzenschand, Germany) there used to be a uranium mine. The mine was closed in the 80s. Back then many locals used to blame the radioactivity set free by this mine for a number of cancer cases. It usually is very hard to to impossible to find a definite cause for a cancer case. And statistical methods only become reliable with a large number of cases. As such blaming anything on the mine was not the most reliable proposition. In the 2000s a radon healthbath was opened which was treating patients with water flowing from the old mine which otherwise had been sealed when the mine was closed. Some patients swear by it, pay the cost by themselves because insurrance doesn't pay for it and regularly travel great distances to that bath.
So we have a case for and one against low doses of radioactivity on the same location. Both are different but if anything it is proof how weak the knowledge on the effects of low doses of radiation is.
Awesome. I know of a similar radon clinic in Germany. You need a prescription to enter.
I’ve heard of that place.
Wow, this is one of the most interesting videos I've seen. Instant sub 100%.
Thanks for the sub. Glad you liked the video.
I am skeptical of health benefits, but I do agree fear of radon or radiation in general is way overblown, especially here in the United States.
I think the health benefits of radon should be explored further to see if there could be a benefit. The people I talked to at that health mine seem to think it does them some good.
@@RadioactiveDrew It would be interesting to find out for sure!
Living in Florida, I regularly talk to people who swear up and down that crystal healing, homeopathic remedies and prayer reliably work, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.
I don't think most people care much for evidence these days.
@@Cthulhu013 my personal feeling is that radon therapy and crystal healing aren't in the same camp. Certain levels of radiation exposure have been found to help inflammation. I'm hoping to do another couple videos about the subject this summer.
@@RadioactiveDrew Looking forward to your findings.
@@RadioactiveDrew Lol. Of course it does. It's called placebo effect. Believe in something enough and for granted it'll make you feel better.
You've helped give me some peace of mind as reside 5000 ft mountains
I almost live at the same altitude here in Montana. Radon is usually a product of geology more than anything else.
Radon causes more than 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. every year. Despite that it is totally preventable, radon is the number one lung cancer killer in nonsmokers.
There is no known safe level for exposure to radon, but EPA recommends you fix a home if the radon level is 4 pCi/L or more.
The report the DOE did that the EPA and CDC use to base public policy on shows very different data on radon exposure. The "no known safe level", which comes from the Linear No Threshold model is extremely flawed as it only uses extremely high doses as data and works its way backwards for low dose exposure. That's not how radiation exposure works. If it did we would all be dying from cancers from the natural background radiation we are exposed to everyday.
In Michigan we were encouraged to test our basements for radon.
I'm sure...because there is money to be made in radon mitigation.
Michigan radon is low compared to many places.
Maybe a video about Maria Skłodowska-Curie, and her work. How she labored to get 1 gram of Radium.
Thank you for this video. In my state you have to put mitigation systems in if you have radon higher than 4. There wasn't radon found when I bought my house. When I sold it years later their was. I was very worried. I feel better about it after watching your video I learned a lot.
The level of radon can change based on a bunch of factors...temp, pressure...if you have your widows open a lot. Glad you learned something.
The part about being contaminated was very interesting. A lot of the comments here write "Radon is a noble gas and it goes right through the filter" - but in that case, it won't stick to the clothing either. A noble gas is chemically inert because of its electron configuration. But if an atom decays, the electrons don't change automatically with the nucleus. So you get an ionized atom and I can imagine it is the ionization which makes the single-atom decay products stick to normal dust particles. Radiation makes a mess out of chemistry if the energy is high enough.
For me the mask I was wearing was more for the decay products. To protect against high amounts of radon usually takes a full face mask with its own air supply...at least that's what I've seen.
The decay products of radon are charged metallic particles (Po, Pb & Bi) and they will stick to clothing. But using a Geiger counter to detect these particles is very inefficient and gives a misleading notion that the radon hazard is small. You have to use the correct detectors for radon, not a Geiger counter.
I think the problem with radon in houses is that you live there, so your exposure over time would be much more. Of course, pilots and flight attendants also are exposed on a daily basis, but I'd compare it to something like that rather than just visiting a mine.
How is radon therapy supposed to work? I'm always suspicious of alternative medicine. Has there been any science done on it?
The whole radon healing thing needs more research. It could be helpful in some cases. A lot of the people that I talked to there were telling me how it helps them.
May Atom guide you in his glow!
After coming out of the mine .The guy looks so much younger and so pain free . Hopefully he does not start growing extra limbs .Only kidding of coarse .I enjoy this man's videos .For me it's a learning experience for sure .Hope he is safe doing these things .It's not worth getting a cancer to make some videos .I realize he is really into these things .And knows allot .But long term effects are not seen until later .
Believe it or not but my exposure its pretty low.
Radiation does, in fact, help with inflammation. Lots of peer-reviewed studies on it, the general consensus is that as long as it's from a contained source and isn't actually being INGESTED the hormesis theory does hold true, the main issue with radon spas is all the daughter products and lead that inevitably end up in your system. Some countries STILL use nasopharyngeal irradiation to treat severe sinus inflammation, stuff works. Some of the more recent studies came out during COVID when they noticed symptom improvements in patients that got CT scans or chest X-Rays vs patients that didn't, cause the inflammation cascade's a big reason for long-term bad outcomes. There's also the fact it's a heavy noble gas, like xenon, and those ALSO have analgesic properties so the somewhat-immediate relief from it makes it a lot more noticeable. The vast majority of bad health outcomes related to radon or radiation exposure are either continuous occupational exposure over years, or ingesting of things that are bone or organ seekers, and would still be a major issue even if it WASN'T radioactive - see also, phosphorous and fluorine compounds that do similar things despite being non-radioactive. That's really the big problem with radioisotopes and pollution, and why it's absolutely criminal that oil companies can still use their well brine to salt roads in the winter or control dust in the summer - that stuff is absolutely chock full of radium dissolved in solution, I can pick up on my CDV-700 which brands of frozen corn came from Ohio vs Indiana/Illinois fields cause of the bioaccumulation from dust-suppressing farm roads.
What kind of count rates are you getting on those roads with the CDV-700?
@@RadioactiveDrew IDK I don't live in Ohio, the corn's about 3x background level but non-Ohio-grown corn brands are background. It ain't much until you consider how most of what's actually in there is Radium, not just radon daughters, so it bioaccumulates and doesn't really leave. There's been articles about this stuff going back a decade or more, the WORST is old oil/brine piping that's so bad it's got neutron activation of the steel, scrapyards won't even take old oilfield pipes cause the steel mills have survey meters nowadays. Coal tailings and especially ash ponds are pretty hot too, the NRC made my dad wear a film badge in the mid 80's at Dutch Gap power station cause of how much uranium and radium are in coal, their plant put out MORE radioactive contaminants than the nuclear plant downriver.
As a kid we were all told radon was in our basements and we'd all be dead from breathing it in. That was forty years ago.....
Everyone in my family had a basement and that's where we spent the winters playing as kids when we got too cold outside. If it wasn't my basement it was someone else's. I did a lot more things as a kid and young man that was much more detrimental to my well being than the radon gas. Besides, I don't think it would be possible to unequivocally determine if radon caused someones lung cancer. I think too many times something gets the blame because it can't be proven it didn't cause an ailment.
At an apartment complex I lived at from 1987 until 2014, the owners in 2008 put a radon detection pack in every apartment that stayed in place for 30 days, then sent to a lab to determine the amount of radon detected. All but one apartment building had infinitesimally low radon exposure, including the building for my apartment. The one building that had high radon count had a 24/7 ventilation system installed that used low speed fans in the crawlspace of the building and vented out of ducts to the roof. After the mitigation system was installed, apartments in that building had the radon detection packs installed again and after 30 days, were tested and the building had infinitesimally low radon.
There need to be some controlled studies done on the radon gas therapy. Mostly, in the medical literature, radon is considered carcinogenic. But who knows, it may help people with pain. But it needs to be checked out thoroughly before a recommendation can be make. Would be great if it worked.
I think it’s more about the exposure level that makes it a carcinogen. At low levels it might have some benefits and at very high levels be a problem.
Xenon is a strong anesthetic too, I guess Radon could work the same way but it’s not worth the radiation exposure
I came here to say the same thing (and did). Given that xenon has a more pronounced anesthetic effect than krypton (the next lighter noble gas), I would expect radon's anesthetic effect to be even more powerful, which could explain why even relatively modest concentrations such as found in the "health mines" can have noticeable effects. That said, I wouldn't take the trade-off of the increased health risk from the radiation.
Got a radon detector, here in northern Germany, our house with no cellar, in a region where the radon maps shows zero, there is Radon ! Only a little, no concern at all, but if the living room is not used and vented for ie 2-3 days the Radon concentration goes up to the first health limit. Above ground ! Old houses in the south of Germany with a cellar have unhealthy high concentrations
Love this and the channel. (I’m a nuclear engineer.) You do realize the mask was leaking, right? You have facial hair and filtration masks of any kind cannot perform at their rated function if they cannot achieve a seal. I’m not worried as I’m sure you are not because you weren’t there long enough. But as a nuclear power plant worker, I would have been forced to shave before doing what you did, even with such a thin beard. But this issue keeps coming up among DIY workers and even with biological airborne contaminants when people who have full beards and think filtration masks will protect them. Keep the content coming!
Yeah, I’m aware that the mask didn’t have a great seal. I was trying to cut down on breathing in the daughter products a bit. Also I wanted to show how those daughter products collected on the filters. Technically there isn’t a mask that will filter out radon since it’s a noble gas. Seems like the only way to keep your exposure down is with a supplied air system. My visits to these mines is pretty short so my exposure is very low.
Uranium miners were not only heavy smokers and tobacco chewers, they were also chronic drunks!
There's no way radon daughters go away in 24 hours. The last step alone, polonium-210, is 138 days.
This video is great and informative. I knew radon daughters were charged (someone has a YT video where he collects fresh dust in a house and shows it to be radioactive for a few hours) but I never thought about the isotopes from radon sticking to your clothes!
About longcancer; probably also just because of the amounts of dust that miners breath in. This happens also in a lot of other occupations without any of these radiations.
But yues, I would try radon-therapy if I could/
Well, if you are ever in Montana you can go to these radon health mines. I'll be doing another video on the subject soon.
Thanks for all the info and effort to provide to us. Something I've wondered about
No problem. I'm planning on making a couple more videos about the topic of radon.
why did they shut down these mines?
Nice and interesting video's from you.
The government stopped buying the uranium. So the market crashed.
When I worked with radiation they advised us to stay 1 to2 feet distance from the radiation as much as possible. We wore a badge that was tested regularly. I did as they advised so had routinely low readings of exposure. Some were .ore casual about the distance so got much higher readings.
My uncle died from cancer from Radon...he died in 2015 and he underwent kemo and radiation with no good results,so iabit Confused
not gonna lie at around 13:40 my ears were ringing from hearing the Geiger counter freak out like that
I’ve tried to dial down the sound of the Geiger counter a bit in other videos.
It's crazy that the disused uranium mine is just there for anyone to stumble into, without even a warning sign
Well you would have to go out of your way to get to this mine. There’s nothing dangerous about these mines being uranium mines. The danger comes from open mine shafts, which I’ve found a couple.
@@RadioactiveDrew Acute gravity poisoning
@@TrystyKat Remember, its not the fall that kills you, its the stopping. 😁
Not sure why I am here, but now I know about radon mines.
I honestly would expect any therapeutic properties of radon gas to be attributable to the anesthetizing effect of heavy noble gases, not to the radiation. The radiation would be strictly harmful in any amount (by the linear no-threshold model), but some people might judge the harm of the radiation to be outweighed by the benefits of the anaesthesia. Honestly, though, stable xenon gas likely confers almost the same benefits as radon but without the hazards of radiation, and you can safely breathe it in higher concentrations.
The LNT radiation model doesn't make any sense and most scientists have rejected it. If it was a good way to show risk and negative results from radiation exposure we would see every commercial pilot and air crew dying from cancer.
@@RadioactiveDrew That's a logical fallacy, though maybe you're being intentionally hyperbolic. There are many ways for a human being to die, and radiation-induced cancer is only one of them - and not a very common one at that. Maybe the average person would die of radiation-induced cancer at the age of 150, and the average airline pilot would die of radiation-induced cancer at the age of 100, but because no one lives to those ages, we can't statistically observe the effects of chronic, low-level radiation on cancer rates. Now, you can argue that, if something else kills you before radiation does, then the risk posed by low-level radiation is moot, but that's only valid in the average case. There are always statistical outliers. I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid flying just because of the increased radiation dose, but, if all else is equal, I will always choose to live with less exposure rather than more, even if we're talking about a choice between 0.25 µSv/hr and 0.12 µSv/hr, which you might consider a pointless distinction.
Beautiful Videography and very well edited. This is really interesting as I grew up in an area "plagued" with Radon gas - St. Austell, Cornwall, UK. Here a lot of public buildings have foundation ducts and blowers to disperse the gas from under the buildings.
Pretty neat place with a little bit of a weird kind of Americana nostalgia. It'd be fun to visit, but not so much for the radon itself. Cheers.
Super interesting.Thank you.
We have quite a lot of radon issues in my area of Pennsylvania. Great video.
Like what kind of radon issues? Just high radon levels? I hope I showed in my video that there is a very big difference between residential radon and radon you would find in a uranium mine.
@@RadioactiveDrew yes you did. I live in an area with a lot of small but strong uranium occurrences so mining was to a minimum and stayed out of the public eye. A lot of cases of lung cancer around these areas with normally healthy people. Your videos area great, keep them coming.
Abandoned Mines of Pennsylvania Yep, there exists a radon belt across Pennsylvanian and into New Jersey known as the Reading Prong. Where you find natural uranium deposits, you find radon gas.
My mom lives near Allentown PA. Every house has the radon vacuums on the side. When I was little I was fascinated by anything radioactive because of the mysterious unknown factor.
Drew, excellent production!! I wonder how many of the people that signed the graffiti wall developed lung cancer..
I’m guessing zero.
Wow I didn't know those majestic mountains and rocks could be so active. Much great information in your video. Thanks
I have watched your video and become radioactive :)
Sounds about right.
A few thoughts:
- Much of the concern over Radon in the US stems from the risk of lung cancer that low levels of exposure can cause over a *lifetime*, which is a long time. As you know, it’s not just about the amount of radiation exposure but the time and route, and all that calculus is where The 4 piC/L limit defined by the EPA came from: a few hundred or even thousand piC/L over a few minutes our hours doesn’t add up to much. But a low dose like the EPA action level over a lifetime means ~7 people out of a thousand will get lung cancer, and for smokers it’s ~115 people. It’s about the same risk as getting in a car crash, which many of us have been, and basically everyone takes steps to reduce because why wouldn’t you?
- Studies on the health effects are HARD, both because bias, and ethics. We know that all radiation exposure creates a risk of cancer (even if minute), and that Radon in particular has a known nexus to lung cancer,which means doing a double-blind randomized controlled study is basically impossible: you can’t get informed consent without breaking the study, and NOT getting consent for increasing someone’s cancer risk is entirely immoral and unethical. That means your only option is people who are already getting radon therapy, which introduces bias and makes a control group impossible. Add in the mess of funding a study where the only people doing so have a financial interest in a positive result, and you get the current situation. It’s a mess.
- PLEASE, PLEASE use better PPE! No face mask will seal well, for example, if you have a beard. Tyvek coveralls and booties, plus gloves, would do wonders to reduce your exposure to particle contamination, as well, and are inexpensive and reusable in many cases. Sure, most of this stuff is low risk for limited exposure - but your cumulative exposure is far higher than average given that you seek it out, so why not take a few easy extra steps to mitigate that increased risk? No one wants cancer!
The 4 pCi/L is a joke number the EPA came up with based on a radon report where the only data that showed cancer came from miners. Exposure to radiation can't be defined by a linear plot on a graph...it doesn't work that way. If it did we would all die from cancer caused by radiation because we are constantly being exposed from space, the ground, the water...all from natural sources. If the exposure to low level radiation caused cancer we would see a huge spike in cancers in commercial pilots and flight crew.
Interesting and informative video. I'd love to be able to visit places like that, and simply pick up nice, active samples from the ground!
Glad you enjoyed the video. There will be a lot more coming soon.
Your content quality is masterful, your channel is about to blow up, algorithm got you covered! Good luck ^^
That mask won't prevent you from inhaling radon itself. Only inefficiently capture the solid particles. The filter does not chemically select for a noble gas (obviously) and for atom sized particles it will not catch everything at the angstrom scale (its meant for sub- micron but not much further). If you want to enter a mine like this you really should be using an SCBA.
Yeah that mask doesn’t do much.
Right or wrong about Radon in the home, when potential buyers find out there is, say 9 points of Radon, they will use this to lower the value of your home or even turn away some potential buyers.
People will look for any advantage when trying to buy a home.
@@RadioactiveDrew Very good point!
I think alcohol is a bigger health risk than radon
By leaps and bounds for sure.
This is really cool ! Drew is very interesting and these videos are awesome ! I definitely would "try out" that mine ! Pretty cool. The study of radioactivity, matter, energy, mines, Uranium is fascinating. I love the video he does with that "creepy" ( lol ) vintage smoke detector !
Radon therapy. Don't you just love pseudoscience!
Keep these excellent videos coming.
brooklyndrive It is just that. Look up the history from the 1920 s about people drinking radium infused water and how they developed cancer. People actually sold this stuff as a QUACK cure for physical ailments.
It's possible it suppresses the immune system which helps
@@AgentOffice Interesting theory since a malfunctioning immune system that arracks the body can cause several diseases.
@@billsimpson604 yes autoimmune such as some arthritis
One key off with 'attacks'. Maybe it was caused by my radium painted alarm clock hands.
Do the pain relieving effects last or do you need continual treatments to maintain a lower pain level?
Bathesda missed out on a great type of location for fallout
I would love to make a game that centers around radiation. I have some ideas for something I’ve begun to write down.
Super good video Drew. Always enjoy your videos
Thanks. I’m planning on doing a follow up video on the subject of radon.
Could the "pain relief" be psychosomatic? 🤔
That’s a possibility…but they have also witnessed this pain relief in animals brought down into the mine. It’s a subject I want to research more.
I suspect how radon help kill your pain is simply killing your nerves, or interfering nerve signals, along with psychological effects. The real effect is killing you though.
The radiation isn't intense enough to kill nerves or interfere with nerve signals. The low dose radiation has been found to help with inflammation. The dose rate isn't high enough to harm you from visiting sites like this with higher levels of radiation. Radon, like everything can be made a poison if its in a high enough dose...the dose found in this mine isn't harmful.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I have been to Mi Vida prior with the same effect.
Sokobanja Serbia has radon springs for healthcare use purposes, been around for centuries.
I lived in Moab many years. Only saw 2 snakes. I was a western coach whip, harmless and the other a bull snake, acts mean but is not. No rattlesnakes as there is nothing for them to eat!
Well I’ve seen rattlesnakes out in that desert and plenty evidence of rodents in some of the mines. Snakes are everywhere.
You’re doing the Lord’s work 🙏 thank you
Glad you enjoy the videos.
Somebody should consider selling those folks some Ocean front property out there, because they'll buy anything.
Who are you talking about?
I lived in a house that was destroying my thyroid. I called the Radon Division in Olympia Washington and was told to buy a meter, which I did, in a week I had a constant reading of 19.8, I called them back and was told if I couldn’t mediate the basement and the readings were that on the main level to get out of the house. My thyroid was damaged by the radon and I came down with hypothyroidism. It’s been hell. I lived in that house for 6 years and found out about this 8 months before walking out. I let the house go back to the bank, I couldn’t sell it to anyone. This is nothing to play with. Radon gas sends out daughter particles which lodges in your lungs and can cause cancer
This video really makes light of the dangers of Radon gas in your home. Its one thing to go into a mine for a couple of hours, and quite another to breath it in all day for years in your home. So yes, 4 pCi/L is low, but it accumulates over time in your lungs so after 10 years you end up with an extremely high amount built up.
Whoever told you that radon had anything to do with your thyroid issues was lying to you. I hope you didn’t let the bank take back your house because of the radon in there.
The dangers of radon are limited to uranium mines. No one has levels high enough in their house unless that house happens to be inside a uranium mine.
@@RadioactiveDrew You clearly have no clue what you're talking about. Radon is extremely damaging to humans and is a high risk factor for cancer amongst other things. There are plenty of scientific studies shining light on this. Trying to say that radiation isn't dangerous, especially long term and trying to blame it on simply other factors instead is mind boggling to me. What you have concerning health is usually a layer of risk factors. If you're a smoker, that's one layer, and then let's say you live in a radon infested house that's another, and quite often they add up together (but not always). But Radon can without doubt cause severe damage to one's thyroid, and other areas of the body, especially long-term as the radition will enter your body and blood stream through various means. I'd educture myself further about it if I was you rather than simply stating people are wrong. It's not too uncommon for dangerous amounts of radon in and around living areas, hence it's usually protocol in many countries to check said levels every couple of years.
For a few sources:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6480006/
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13762-018-1715-x
www.hematologyandoncology.net/files/2013/05/ho0312_sethi1.pdf
academic.oup.com/aje/article/151/11/1091/87328
Radiation induced thyroid damage is due to exposure to radioactive Iodine isotopes following nuclear accidents or weapons detonation.
Radon had nothing to do with it.
Really cool lessons, things that usually are created as fear with a little education can be managed. Every time I watch now all I think of that the intro should be imagine dragons song “ radioactive” ☢️ .
Love these man you teach so much
Thanks…glad you enjoy them.
Is it that the interior of the earth is made of molten elements that are either liquid because of nuclear reactions like fission of uranium, or is it due to gravitational force as the earth is in orbit around the sun and is also in orbit around the quasar in the center of the Milky Way ?.
It’s a combination of forces I believe. You have extreme pressures in the earth along with a lot of uranium and thorium. It could be fission causing that heat but if it was we would detect fission products in almost everything. Seems like it would be decay heat from those isotopes along with pressure, magnetic fields, gravitational forces.
I was in an abandoned uranium mine recently, background was a bit higher but nowhere near that!
Got a couple nice stones though
Yeah this mine has been kind of rare in the level of radon it produces. I’m sure it has something to do with how good the deposit of uranium is in that area.
In ohio we have some areas that are high from radon due to the clay. Our house is basically built on a clay riverbed. Radon is high but its still negligible considering their units 😂
If your house was built with uranium mill tailings I would be much more concerned with radon and radiation levels. All the other radon levels in homes have been oversold to the public as a danger.
@@RadioactiveDrew yeah for sure. It's so common here too don't think about it twice. Funny how it's oversold
@jonathonvince561 I recently came across a uranium mine, much like the one in this video. One that had a lot of air being pushed out with a very high radon concentration. I did try and limit my exposure to this air as I didn’t need to be exposed unnecessarily. The radon levels in some of these mines is a problem. You could be getting the same dose of radiation spending 3 hours in that mine as you would living in a house for a couple years with moderate radon contamination.
So how many counts per minute are dangerous? Whats the threshold? For example 13000 counts per minute for 24 hours, is thay dangerous?
It kind of depends on the type of radiation. But if you are in an area that has a 13000 counts per minute background and are spending a lot of time there that could be harmful. If you are around a source of radiation like a uranium glazed plate or tile which can easily be 50,000 CPM...that's not much of a threat. The radiation drops off fairly quickly and can be blocked by thin layers of glass, plastic, wood or metal. So unless you have a source like that very close to you day in and day out you should be fine.
@Radioactive Drew thanks for the reply. Does it build up in your system? What if you were exposed to 13000 cpm for a hour a day for a month? After being exposed to a dangerous dose does your body eventually get rid of it or how does that work?
@@captnkurt83 its like any damage that your body receives. The UV-A and UV-B light from the sun damage our cells and our body heals from it. Ionizing radiation is the same way. The difference is that the different types of radiation are invisible to us. Its when the damage is too great for out bodies to handle is when serious problems can happen. So radiation isn't like heavy metals like mercury that can bioaccumulate in the body. The radiation doesn't stay with you. Only way that could happen is if you have something in you that is radioactive...then that continues to emit radiation inside you, which can be bad.
@Radioactive Drew thank you for the information, always wondered about this stuff.
Radon mitigation is mainly just ventilation, especially if its from building material. Then there is Radon from the ground and this can cause significantly higher doses. Its NOT the same being exposed for a very long time.
Radon is the same if it comes from building material or from the ground. None of the residential radon is in high enough concentrations to be harmful.
@@RadioactiveDrew Not true Drew! Google on the Stanley Watras case. There have been many cases in Europe, one where a house built over karst limestone (i.e cavities) had almost 50 KBq/m³ and everybody who lived in that house died from lung cancer. The original cases came from Sweden in the 60s where some houses built with blocks containing uranium (from roasted shale) gave very high radon concentrations of radon with very definite health consequences.
I’m going to make a video talking about this referencing EPA and DOE reports that contradict the current feelings on radon.
@@RadioactiveDrew Well, vested interests are always going to argue for or against as the radon hazard is based on statistical analyses. It is impossible to say which lung cancers have been caused by radon, so not an obvious cause and effect. But the alpha scintillator cells I used 15 years ago to collect high radon gas activity, and which were flushed immediately after measurement, still continue to have high background counts from the long-lived daughters, Pb-210, Bi-210 (beta emitters) and Po210 (alpha emitter). Perhaps you could try measuring the radon in those old mines, but don't breath in that air! The DNA mutation is like a lottery ticket, you might win on the first ticket you buy or perhaps never win. You will never know which alpha particle causes the mutation to a cancerous tumour in a lung tissue cell.
2:36
hey i have that exact geiger counter!
Why can't I stop watching your videos? Jesus Christ dude
Thanks...I really like hearing people like to watch these videos.
this channel is a little jewel.
thank you
AWESOME music choices in all of your videos. WOW!
For anyone wondering: Solstice/Kaldt Project
In Sweden, people get rehoused if the rock under their house fills the basement with Radon!
Thank you for this fascinating look into this subject.
Here in the UK there are major concerns relating to homes being contaminated with high levels of Radon.
The incidence of lung cancer spikes where the above is found. They also seal floors to stop Radon from rising from the radioactively found in granite and the release of the gas.
Are there concerns there relating to the gas and the release of alpha particles, so destructive to internal tissue.
Other than from smoking most other lung cancers are thought to be generated from the above.
What precautions are taken there?
Probably none
Amazing video. It was very educational. Thanks for the effort and please you dont need to be exposed to those levels of radiation to prove your point. Next time use a Tyvek and gloves and measure the radiation on it, like you do with the cartridges. Greetings from Perú.
Short exposure times to the radiation within that mine isn't that big of a deal. I would be more concerned with long term exposure at that level. But thanks for the suggestion.
This is fascinating!
16:52 Holy crap, Drew… you need to SLOW DOWN while driving! Very unsafe!
cool video. I am a radon mitigation contractor for 22 years. I would personally not go in those caves or mines without PPE. I've been to that area near Moab...is it Yellowcat?
It’s the MiVida Mine.
This is so crazy. I just fled NE TN to Myrtle Beach SC because I knew something, possibly radon, was killing me and my 7 yo son. I could feel the effects as soon as I entered the area where we lived regardless of which of the four roads I would use to drive into town. My entire family thinks I'm overreacting, but his teeth have been rotting out of his head and mine had gotten so loose they would shift as I ate. Little by little we're regaining our health. Been here six weeks so far. Hopeful for complete recoveries. Don't understand why it possibly helps some while hurting others.
As an aside, I get sick by just driving roads that pass by open caves. Plenty of those in TN. The cool air feels great on a hot summer day, but cruising back roads no longer works for me :(
I think some this may be "psych sematic": it could be both ways, to you exposure to Radon makes you feel ill, while someone else it makes them feel great...a self fulfilling prophecy if you will.
Pretty cool video! Love seeing these interesting places, subbed! As far as the radon goes, it has been a bit of a complicated one to sort out because a lot of uranium miners were also smokers. Personally, just for peace of mind, I'd rather just install the mitigation if my house had a radon "issue". Mainly because there would be the cool factor that I could tell my neighbors I was running nuclear experiments in my basement and needed to vent the "harmless radioactive byproducts" over into their property 😄
Have you read the Stanley Watras story? Fascinating story there.
I’ll have to look him up.
Great job on this subject.
Thanks. I plan to revisit this subject again as there is a bunch to talk about.
It cost me $1000 to have my basement mitigated for radon, I think cancer treatments cost a bit more
I was skeptical of the title, but if people get pain relief (,if pain is really bad) its cool that people have this option.
Here where i live in ireland we have a lot of Radon gas, around 300 people a year die from it
I would be very surprised if the levels are high enough for even one person to die from. I would like to investigate that area in the future to see what the levels are like. But unless those 300 people were uranium miners working down in an unventilated mine I would find very hard to believe.
On EPA Ireland you should be able to find radon maps and info about here