Interesting element my mom took 27 RAD exposure over an 18 month period making Radon seeds in gold tubes for initial cancer tests at The Mayo Clinic back in the late 1940;s. Pre waldo working around a pile of lead blocks using mirrors and custom hand tools only hands and wrists exposed most of the time.
That’s really fascinating but also kinda scary. 27 RAD is definitely not a small dose! You’re sure about radon being used for cancer treatment? I never heard of it being used for that purpose but I know that Radium was used back in the day, before everyone learned that it is actually really not good for human body.
Glad you were able to check out the MiVida uranium mine area. Great place to find uranium ore on the side of the road. I think the risks of low radon exposure have been way oversold to the public. I still think there is a market for radon detectors...I have two different ones and use them to monitor levels in different areas where radioactive items are stored.
Yes, Mi Vida was amazing and there was a lot of radon coming out of the mine! I however had more luck with finding minerals at the Cotter mine which is located just a few miles north of Arches National Park. In terms of radon, I don’t know if it’s oversold but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. This being said if you have a collection of radium watches, gauges, uranium minerals, I think a radon meter is a must.
@@benjaminlevi4528 if you will head towards the Uranium arch you should pass it. If you bring a Geiger counter (or better a scintillator like raysid), you should easily be able to pick up the radiation coming from the heap. Good luck!
thank you for making this video! i haven't known too much about Radon other than i need to prevent it building up in my collection lol. i had no idea about the decay chain! it's very interesting to see what it all decays into and what it decays from. i have a ton of Radium objects and some uranium minerals in my display cabinet. Luminous markers, military gauges, compasses etc.. and didn't have a radon meter to see how much was being shot out. however, i grabbed one and left it in my cabinet for a week, and it was still rising above 50 picocuries. so i left it in my room farther away to see how well it dilutes, and it was usually less than 2 picocuries which should be fine i believe. i have no radon ventilation system at the moment- i just dont really have the room to put one in. once my collection is much larger i need to put one in though. all ive been doing to help with radon mitigation was leaving a window fan on and leaving my window open. i also heard i could use activated carbon or something to absorb radon? i dont remember i enjoyed the video! thanks for sharing your info on it!
Hey, glad you liked it and learned something new 😃 Regarding your radium collection, I might be a little bit paranoid about it but I would keep them on the balcony if you have one and if that’s not possible, I’d ventilate the room on a regular basis and regularly check the levels. The military radium items can be particularly hot and produce a lot of radon gas.
@@allRadioactive i ventilate the room everyday. i always make sure to check the levels just to be extra safe- don't want to be breathin' a bunch of bad gas! yes the military items are definitely quite hot! i don't have much ATM but definitely enough to produce a lot of gas. I now have another luminous disk arriving so that'll be another 5-10 uCi of radium decaying in my closet! 😆 thanks a bunch man!
Got this in my recommended and I'm surprised you don't have 1 million subs, considering this is a very well made video! I'm in school for nuclear engineering so this is all super interesting to me. I'll definitely be checking out your other videos too! Subscribed!! 😊
I’m glad you enjoyed it! The topics I cover are very niche and not a lot of people are interested in them. When I started the channel I could have never expected it to grow to the size it is now and to give me the amazing opportunities and community of other nuclear hobbyists. I’m sure one day the TH-cam algorithm gods will find my content 😅
Almost all homes built in the last 30-40 years where I live in Maine have radon mitigation systems. I borrowed a radon detector, and turned our system off after getting baseline levels. I turned the system back on after I saw the levels increasing.
As of the proper way to embed uranium-based minerals for display to prevent particles, radon and radiation emission: Encase them in a heavy leaded glass case, fill that case with resin (this seals), then add a resin coat to seal the leaded glass (due to heavy leaded glass emitting lead dust with age.)
No counts from a radiation sensor, but maybe best to exhibit at a museum or such - say example items from Chernobyl with count rates at encasement on a label.
I've recently been informed I've been living my first 20 years before I moved out of my parents home in about 400-800 Bq/m3. Yeah not great... Most people live their whole life not even knowing what level their house is at.
Thank you for a nice video about radon meter. I also like Aranet radon sensor. It runs from 2 batteries. I placed it into a plastic food bucket with a tight lid togather with granite pebbles and it went up to 2000 Bq/m3 reading. Radia showed that this granite is only 2 times above the background. It hink there is two isotopes of radon. The bad one is from uranium as it has 4 days of halftime while radon from Th has about 1 minute and most of it decays before gets chance to get inhaled.
app can read multiple meters nearby via bluetooth. When a phone pairs the device e-ink screen displays a code that need to enter in the phone. Phone does not need to be connected to internet. I use old Android phone as well as iphone to read out same sensors. It is nice that family members can read out the device from different phones
My parents had to have radon ventilation pumps in the basement when selling the house. Not sure what the levels were but I spent a lot of my youth in the workshop down there. Also we had some asbestos tiles that we used for insulation when brazing and soldering with propane and mapp. Guess I'm f'd.
Asbestos definitely doesn’t sound like fun. Radon while it might not be good for humans, it is natural and we are exposed to it every day while asbestos is not. I recently visited my parents and I brought my radon meter with me and the levels were about 300Bq/m3 which is more than three times what I get at my place. What u founded interesting that they had such levels despite having air ventilation system installed in the house.
These Radon meter looks interesting. But how much does it cost? ... over 200 bucks. Well... 😐I mean... I don't have any _nobel_ friends visiting me, so I might as well take the nobel gas instead, I guess...
Wanted to make a video about Radon gas for a while but I always struggle about how to visualise it. Collaboration with Aranet allowed me to finally create the video and share it here on the channel. Wouldn’t use their products if I thought they weren’t good 😉
Uranium glass doesn’t really produce much radon as it’s processed uranium without its decay products. I wouldn’t worry about it. Same goes for uranium glaze
If Radon has a half life of 4 days - how is it possible for levels to build up? Surely it will reach an equilibrium between new gas entering the building and that which is already there decomposing into Polonium and Helium. And wouldn't the radiation you detected in the filter be from Polonium decaying - not the original Radon?
You’re right that radon has a short half-life, but it continuously enters buildings from soil, rocks and other building materials, and in poorly ventilated spaces, it can accumulate faster than it decays. While equilibrium can form, it depends on ventilation and radon ingress rates. Regarding the filters, you are correct, it is mostly from radon decay products like Polonium or Lead.
As soon as i watched through your video it struck me.... i seen those filters and we have them installes on roofs of our company and we swap them on regular basis. Next time ill cut some piece and seal it and do a 1 day radiacode test 🙂thanx for heads up. What i allso noticed at our company that i detect only 160 to 180 cpm with radiacode 103 but at my home (multiapartment house) i get no less than 350 cpm it got me wondered what this is about, i was thinking about radon meter as i have 2 kids and curently i have no minerals in possesion, only some aliexpress goodies... maybe lower values at work speak for the quality constant ventilation benefits.
The “goodies” you are referring to most probably contain Th232 which does also emit radon but a different isotope, Radon 220 which has much shorter half life. I really wouldn’t worry about radon coming front AliExpress goodies. If you don’t have any strong samples, then most probably you have some natural uranium or thorium in the concrete or bricks from which your building is built. I have Uranium in my walls and on my raysid I can pick up double the background I get outside, nothing to worry about and it’s perfectly normal
air filters loose their activity quickly. You should start measuring as soon as possible after air flow had been switched off. Geiger counter should give some results. After 10h will be no activity leftl. another test is to use a vacuum cleaner and cotton pad as a filter and suck for 20 min.
@@allRadioactive thank you for answer, well 2 weeks back i got Adrianov compas from ussr and and that thing is glassed originaly and still gives 10 to 14 micro Sieverts/front through glass up close and 5 of the back through plastic and those things were meant to be worn like a watch (radium dials and theu did the colouring thick) allso i have 2 very old 1cm dials in plastic case but not more. it is not much but still i was considering led strip to be layed in inner case just to play safe, and then again i would trap some more gases inside and then probably would be a good idea to open it on well aired room or outside.
I sure wish they'd make these detectors that DON'T need a damned app on dumb smartphone that costs a fortune and only lasts a few years at best. Stand alone device, please! Maybe a USB connector so I can use a computer with it, when desired.
I’ll be honest, I am also not a fan of smartphone apps that are required to use a certain product but in this case, it actually feels more like the extension of the meter. The device works perfectly fine without one and only when you want to get more insight into the data the meter has collected (graphs etc), then the app is necessary.
At least this one doesn't immediately demand location permissions along with tons of other ones before it will do anything, like the Radiacode app. Though it does require the "nearby devices" permission on Android, which tbf is necessary for bluetooth but it could also allow them to locate you 🫤.
I keep mine on the opposite side of the room where I have my minerals. I’m not sure about the false readings triggered by uranium minerals. I think it’s best to contact Aranet (or the manufacture you are considering buying the meter from) and asking them about it.
@allRadioactive Or, you can try an experiment: find a larger jar with a lid, place the Aranet radon sensor and rocks inside, and study whether the radon levels increase. It should give a good indication of how much radon is released from a few rocks.
@@mikusmilgravis2775 Just be aware that the meter can get contaminated with solid decay products of gaseous radon, and it will take a few half lifes before it goes back to normal. If you're sealing the radon meter in a jar with the minerals, you're gonna get a very high concentration.
@kwongmanlung I left my radon meter right next to the box with my minerals and the readings didn’t change but when I placed it inside, the readings quickly went up. so I think it’s doing a pretty good job at isolating the background radiation from radon
Didn’t know about that! The meters have couple year battery life depending on the settings, so I guess you can write down the date when the batteries were last replaced and when they should be replaced on a piece of tape and stick it onto the battery door of the meter
The irony of a noble gas also being a carcinogen.
Not very noble of it, is it?
@@allRadioactiveWell think of what humans do to Nature..
@@allRadioactiveI dunno, being a sadistic killer sounds on brand for a noble
Its funny how such a heavy element can remain a gas, which its metal decay products are lighter and turn to a solid.
Yes, chemistry is really amazing and fascinating!
Interesting element my mom took 27 RAD exposure over an 18 month period making Radon seeds in gold tubes for initial cancer tests at The Mayo Clinic back in the late 1940;s. Pre waldo working around a pile of lead blocks using mirrors and custom hand tools only hands and wrists exposed most of the time.
That’s really fascinating but also kinda scary. 27 RAD is definitely not a small dose! You’re sure about radon being used for cancer treatment? I never heard of it being used for that purpose but I know that Radium was used back in the day, before everyone learned that it is actually really not good for human body.
Glad you were able to check out the MiVida uranium mine area. Great place to find uranium ore on the side of the road. I think the risks of low radon exposure have been way oversold to the public. I still think there is a market for radon detectors...I have two different ones and use them to monitor levels in different areas where radioactive items are stored.
Yes, Mi Vida was amazing and there was a lot of radon coming out of the mine! I however had more luck with finding minerals at the Cotter mine which is located just a few miles north of Arches National Park.
In terms of radon, I don’t know if it’s oversold but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. This being said if you have a collection of radium watches, gauges, uranium minerals, I think a radon meter is a must.
@@allRadioactive Where is the Cotter mine exactly ? There's a Cotter Mine Road west of Arches National Park but I couldn't pinpoint the mine location.
@@benjaminlevi4528 if you will head towards the Uranium arch you should pass it. If you bring a Geiger counter (or better a scintillator like raysid), you should easily be able to pick up the radiation coming from the heap. Good luck!
Me: setting up uranium mining in Factorio while watching this video LOL
thank you for making this video! i haven't known too much about Radon other than i need to prevent it building up in my collection lol.
i had no idea about the decay chain! it's very interesting to see what it all decays into and what it decays from.
i have a ton of Radium objects and some uranium minerals in my display cabinet. Luminous markers, military gauges, compasses etc.. and didn't have a radon meter to see how much was being shot out. however, i grabbed one and left it in my cabinet for a week, and it was still rising above 50 picocuries. so i left it in my room farther away to see how well it dilutes, and it was usually less than 2 picocuries which should be fine i believe.
i have no radon ventilation system at the moment- i just dont really have the room to put one in. once my collection is much larger i need to put one in though. all ive been doing to help with radon mitigation was leaving a window fan on and leaving my window open. i also heard i could use activated carbon or something to absorb radon? i dont remember
i enjoyed the video! thanks for sharing your info on it!
Hey, glad you liked it and learned something new 😃
Regarding your radium collection, I might be a little bit paranoid about it but I would keep them on the balcony if you have one and if that’s not possible, I’d ventilate the room on a regular basis and regularly check the levels.
The military radium items can be particularly hot and produce a lot of radon gas.
@@allRadioactive i ventilate the room everyday. i always make sure to check the levels just to be extra safe- don't want to be breathin' a bunch of bad gas!
yes the military items are definitely quite hot! i don't have much ATM but definitely enough to produce a lot of gas. I now have another luminous disk arriving so that'll be another 5-10 uCi of radium decaying in my closet! 😆
thanks a bunch man!
Got this in my recommended and I'm surprised you don't have 1 million subs, considering this is a very well made video! I'm in school for nuclear engineering so this is all super interesting to me. I'll definitely be checking out your other videos too! Subscribed!! 😊
I’m glad you enjoyed it! The topics I cover are very niche and not a lot of people are interested in them. When I started the channel I could have never expected it to grow to the size it is now and to give me the amazing opportunities and community of other nuclear hobbyists.
I’m sure one day the TH-cam algorithm gods will find my content 😅
This might be like the second time in my life I actually like the sponsor of a video/a product being offered to me. :D
Unless you are storing tons of the minerals, you really don't need to worry.
Almost all homes built in the last 30-40 years where I live in Maine have radon mitigation systems. I borrowed a radon detector, and turned our system off after getting baseline levels. I turned the system back on after I saw the levels increasing.
As of the proper way to embed uranium-based minerals for display to prevent particles, radon and radiation emission: Encase them in a heavy leaded glass case, fill that case with resin (this seals), then add a resin coat to seal the leaded glass (due to heavy leaded glass emitting lead dust with age.)
Seams like a bit of an overkill but I’m sure it’s gets the job done!
No counts from a radiation sensor, but maybe best to exhibit at a museum or such - say example items from Chernobyl with count rates at encasement on a label.
Without sunscreen I don’t go out…Trust no ionizing radiation 😂😂😂
I've recently been informed I've been living my first 20 years before I moved out of my parents home in about 400-800 Bq/m3. Yeah not great... Most people live their whole life not even knowing what level their house is at.
That’s why radon test are mandatory in some places. You just don’t know unless you test for it!
Thank you for a nice video about radon meter. I also like Aranet radon sensor. It runs from 2 batteries. I placed it into a plastic food bucket with a tight lid togather with granite pebbles and it went up to 2000 Bq/m3 reading. Radia showed that this granite is only 2 times above the background. It hink there is two isotopes of radon. The bad one is from uranium as it has 4 days of halftime while radon from Th has about 1 minute and most of it decays before gets chance to get inhaled.
Does the app require you to log in or anything before using it?
app can read multiple meters nearby via bluetooth. When a phone pairs the device e-ink screen displays a code that need to enter in the phone. Phone does not need to be connected to internet. I use old Android phone as well as iphone to read out same sensors. It is nice that family members can read out the device from different phones
Great video! Very informative 👍🏻
Thanks for watching!
My parents had to have radon ventilation pumps in the basement when selling the house. Not sure what the levels were but I spent a lot of my youth in the workshop down there. Also we had some asbestos tiles that we used for insulation when brazing and soldering with propane and mapp. Guess I'm f'd.
Asbestos definitely doesn’t sound like fun. Radon while it might not be good for humans, it is natural and we are exposed to it every day while asbestos is not.
I recently visited my parents and I brought my radon meter with me and the levels were about 300Bq/m3 which is more than three times what I get at my place. What u founded interesting that they had such levels despite having air ventilation system installed in the house.
These Radon meter looks interesting. But how much does it cost?
... over 200 bucks. Well... 😐I mean... I don't have any _nobel_ friends visiting me, so I might as well take the nobel gas instead, I guess...
Unfortunately specialised equipment tends to cost a bit more but I think the Aranet Radon meter is definitely worth its price.
Thanks for this advertisement..ugh, I mean video!
Wanted to make a video about Radon gas for a while but I always struggle about how to visualise it. Collaboration with Aranet allowed me to finally create the video and share it here on the channel. Wouldn’t use their products if I thought they weren’t good 😉
How much of a concern is uranium glass? I would imagine some of the gas would stay trapped in the glass.
Uranium glass doesn’t really produce much radon as it’s processed uranium without its decay products. I wouldn’t worry about it. Same goes for uranium glaze
If Radon has a half life of 4 days - how is it possible for levels to build up?
Surely it will reach an equilibrium between new gas entering the building and that which is already there decomposing into Polonium and Helium.
And wouldn't the radiation you detected in the filter be from Polonium decaying - not the original Radon?
You’re right that radon has a short half-life, but it continuously enters buildings from soil, rocks and other building materials, and in poorly ventilated spaces, it can accumulate faster than it decays. While equilibrium can form, it depends on ventilation and radon ingress rates.
Regarding the filters, you are correct, it is mostly from radon decay products like Polonium or Lead.
What’s beryllium for I got a magnetron tube Ik it’s got thorium or turns into uranium
As soon as i watched through your video it struck me.... i seen those filters and we have them installes on roofs of our company and we swap them on regular basis. Next time ill cut some piece and seal it and do a 1 day radiacode test 🙂thanx for heads up. What i allso noticed at our company that i detect only 160 to 180 cpm with radiacode 103 but at my home (multiapartment house) i get no less than 350 cpm it got me wondered what this is about, i was thinking about radon meter as i have 2 kids and curently i have no minerals in possesion, only some aliexpress goodies... maybe lower values at work speak for the quality constant ventilation benefits.
The “goodies” you are referring to most probably contain Th232 which does also emit radon but a different isotope, Radon 220 which has much shorter half life. I really wouldn’t worry about radon coming front AliExpress goodies.
If you don’t have any strong samples, then most probably you have some natural uranium or thorium in the concrete or bricks from which your building is built. I have Uranium in my walls and on my raysid I can pick up double the background I get outside, nothing to worry about and it’s perfectly normal
air filters loose their activity quickly. You should start measuring as soon as possible after air flow had been switched off. Geiger counter should give some results. After 10h will be no activity leftl. another test is to use a vacuum cleaner and cotton pad as a filter and suck for 20 min.
@@allRadioactive thank you for answer, well 2 weeks back i got Adrianov compas from ussr and and that thing is glassed originaly and still gives 10 to 14 micro Sieverts/front through glass up close and 5 of the back through plastic and those things were meant to be worn like a watch (radium dials and theu did the colouring thick) allso i have 2 very old 1cm dials in plastic case but not more.
it is not much but still i was considering led strip to be layed in inner case just to play safe, and then again i would trap some more gases inside and then probably would be a good idea to open it on well aired room or outside.
@@janisalnis6422 thanx, i will definitely try this and report back if some visible results
I wonder if there is an industry use for Radon gas 🤔
It is used in alternative medicine but other than that, I’m not aware of any other uses
I sure wish they'd make these detectors that DON'T need a damned app on dumb smartphone that costs a fortune and only lasts a few years at best. Stand alone device, please! Maybe a USB connector so I can use a computer with it, when desired.
I’ll be honest, I am also not a fan of smartphone apps that are required to use a certain product but in this case, it actually feels more like the extension of the meter. The device works perfectly fine without one and only when you want to get more insight into the data the meter has collected (graphs etc), then the app is necessary.
At least this one doesn't immediately demand location permissions along with tons of other ones before it will do anything, like the Radiacode app. Though it does require the "nearby devices" permission on Android, which tbf is necessary for bluetooth but it could also allow them to locate you 🫤.
Have you thought of a Virtual android device ran on your PC with plugins to do the talking?
I assume that this radon detector would need to be located far from my very large collection of minerals in order to read correctly?
I keep mine on the opposite side of the room where I have my minerals.
I’m not sure about the false readings triggered by uranium minerals. I think it’s best to contact Aranet (or the manufacture you are considering buying the meter from) and asking them about it.
@@allRadioactive thank you
@allRadioactive Or, you can try an experiment: find a larger jar with a lid, place the Aranet radon sensor and rocks inside, and study whether the radon levels increase. It should give a good indication of how much radon is released from a few rocks.
@@mikusmilgravis2775 Just be aware that the meter can get contaminated with solid decay products of gaseous radon, and it will take a few half lifes before it goes back to normal. If you're sealing the radon meter in a jar with the minerals, you're gonna get a very high concentration.
@kwongmanlung I left my radon meter right next to the box with my minerals and the readings didn’t change but when I placed it inside, the readings quickly went up. so I think it’s doing a pretty good job at isolating the background radiation from radon
downside of eInk: less apparent when it runs out of juice (or somehow dies otherwise) unattended.
Didn’t know about that! The meters have couple year battery life depending on the settings, so I guess you can write down the date when the batteries were last replaced and when they should be replaced on a piece of tape and stick it onto the battery door of the meter
Your numerical commas are in a nonsensical place.