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Comment by LinuxBender | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotally can vouch for air purifiers. I bought an old earth bermed home. I suspected radon may be an issue. Purchased 2 AirThings and they were off the government charts so to confirm Radon Daughters were being produced I bought more air purifiers and an Alpha Geiger Counter. I can hold it 2 inches from any of my filters and the alarm sounds. 640 CPM alpha radiation. That changed my project priorities. The filters only bought me some time as the air away from the filters is the same level of radiation as outdoor background noise but obviously the source is still emitting gas. I will probably just bulldoze this place.

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Radon mitigation systems work. And they’re cheap.

You're right but it won't help in my case. I created an ad-hoc system that does the same thing but the source is not at ground level. Through some form of convection I suspect around the chimney the gas is being pushed into the attic and then coming down in rooms they did not join the wall to the ceiling correctly. Most of the radioactive dust is being produced in the attic which nobody has touched for 60+ years. If I put the geiger counter in the attic it goes nuts. I'm just going to level this place and build something correctly.

That sounds wild. I don’t know where you are but in the USA you could reach out to a university extension program/office and ask them to look into it. It’s bizarre enough to catch their interest and come at no cost to you.

Edit: it really is bizarre because Radon is primarily produced by reactions underground/in the earth and has a relatively short half life (3.5 days). I don’t see how it could be atmospherically sourced without it being a hazard to the whole community, regardless of the bizarre convection currents that bring it into your house. It’s unlikely to be produced in your attic.

If I were you, I’d want to know more and understand how this is all happening lest you raze and rebuild and find you still have a problem.

Radon decays into other longer lived radioactive elements, mostly isotopes of lead, which then condense down as dust and cause more problems than radon itself. So it might happen that these cumulate in the attic if circulation is just right.

Can you share your math? Radon does indeed have extremely nasty decay products, but they are very short lived (which is why they’re so nasty). They’re not accumulating in your attic.

I would suspect fly ash as a possible source if the house ever had a coal-burning furnace. Or maybe someone had a watch-painting operation or mixed radioactive glazes or paints there. Someone with appropriate equipment could do a much better job identifying the source.

No math. Only noticed 210-Pb has half life 22 years and thus can cumulate.

Some forms of uranium rich slate when mixed into concrete can dispose radioactive gases.

I'm leaning towards this. My state has a tremendously high uranium concentration and many uranium mines. It would not surprise me if people were not checking for this in the 60's in concrete mix.

With the mention of "radioactive dust" are you sure it's radon, as that should not produce dust, and not some other source of radiation in the attic? Like I don't kow what, a lot of old gas mantle filaments.

Any notion of whether it's β or ɣ radiation you're detecting?

Demolition is going to need careful monitoring to ensure you don't contaminate the entire site.

I have 3 geiger counters that do Gamma, Beta and X-Ray. They do not register anything beyond the background noise. My Alpha detector is the only one that picks up the spikes from the hepa filters and my attic.

Have you done the risk calculations? Are you assuming LNT? Really, at the construction costs now you could probably pay someone to do it and have that be profitable.

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