Radon and Lung      Cancer 

Radon causes approximately 21000 deaths

Annually from kung cancer ,making 

It the second most Important cause of lung

Cancer after smoking.

However the extent of public  knowledge 

About radon is unclear .

Majority of respondents in many studies

Did not know that radon causes lung cancer

.Conversely ,misinformation about radon 

Is common:approximately 50% if respondents 

In many studies reported the erroneous 

Belief  that radon causes headache ,This 

Suggests that the public has confused the

Effects of radon with those of carbon monoxide.

 

      In 1956 Textbook of mining De Re Metallica

(On Metals Matters)

Gregorius Angicola  described a wasting

Disease of miners in Erzberg (Core mountains)

Of Germany that "eats away the lungs----

And plants consumption in body"

German scientists identified this miner's

Disease as lung cancer (Langard 2015)

Radium was discovered by Marie and

Pierre Curie in 1889 following year

 German  Physicist Ernst

Fredrick Doen demonstrated that radium

Emitted a radioactive gas "Radon emanation"

Later simply "Radon"

Epidemiologic studies of Radon and

 lung cancer conducted among miners

In the 1950s confirmed Agricola's 

Recognition of lung cancer as an occupational

Disease.

We now know that Radon is odorless invisible

Gas that results from natural decay of Uranium

And Thoron ,in soil and rock.

The gas enters homes through cracks

In the foundation .

Well---water can be source of residential

Radon . However most of the exposure

Of the general population to radon is via

Soil gases .

Radon measurement: Becquerels per

Cubic meter of air /m3 cubic meter

In 1984 the discovery of home in

Pennsylvania with Radon concentration 

Of 96000BQ /m3

The lung risk equivalent of smoking 250 

Packs of cigarettes per day.

Ref  Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

        Volume 192  Dec 2018 pages 26---31

          Nancy Vogeltanz --Holm 

           Gray G.SchWartz