Effects of weather and soil characteristics on temporal variations in soil-gas radon concentrations

Schumann, R. Randall; Owen, Douglass E.; Asher-Bolinder, Sigrid

doi:10.1130/spe271-p65

Cited by 15 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Second, the indoor radon testing and soil sample measurements did not occur concurrently. During the time between indoor radon sampling and soil sampling, a number of factors could have affected soil radon levels including rainfall, barometric pressure, and temperature [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Third, we were unable to talk directly with the homeowners who had high radon to assess factors related to their disinterest in using the mitigation voucher as the focus of the project was on educating youth as citizen scientists vs. a community campaign to reduce radon risk.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High School Students as Citizen Scientists to Decrease Radon Exposure

Hahn

Wilmhoff²,

Rayens

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Residents in rural Kentucky (KY) and suburban Ohio (OH) expressed concerns about radon exposure and lung cancer. Although 85% of lung cancer cases are caused by tobacco smoke, radon exposure accounts for 10–15% of lung cancer cases. Academic and community members from the University of KY and the University of Cincinnati developed and pilot-tested a family-centered, youth-engaged home radon testing toolkit. The radon toolkit included radon information, and how to test, interpret, and report back findings. We educated youth as citizen scientists and their teachers in human subjects protection and home radon testing using the toolkit in the classroom. Youth citizen scientists explained the study to their parents and obtained informed consent. One hundred students were trained in human subjects protection, 27 had parental permission to be citizen scientists, and 18 homeowners completed surveys. Radon values ranged from < 14.8 Bq/m3 to 277.5 Bq/m3. Youth were interested and engaged in citizen science and this family-centered, school-based project provided a unique opportunity to further the healthy housing and quality education components of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Further research is needed to test the impact of student-led, family-centered citizen science projects in environmental health as part of school curricula.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High School Students as Citizen Scientists to Decrease Radon Exposure

Hahn

Wilmhoff²,

Rayens

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…Weather influence on radon exhalation is well studied (Ferry et al, 2001;Yang et al, 2017;Schumann, Owen, Asher-Bolinder, 1992) and several main factors that affect radon exhalation are the water saturation of the soil and, sometimes, ambient air temperature. However, most of these studies were performed in climates different from normally cold and snowy Russian winters.…”

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confidence: 99%

Factors influencing radon transport in the soils of Moscow

Gavriliev

Petrova

Miklyaev

2022

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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This article delves into the factors that may influence radon flux, such as soil properties and weather conditions on the example of two experimental locations with different soil compositions, composed primarily of clay and sand respectively. The experimental location with sandy soil was previously observed to have anomalously high radon flux levels. Radon monitoring was performed routinely, approximately at the same time of day and in parallel on both of these locations to exclude the influence of diurnal variations. The results show that radon transport on these locations differs in mechanism: location with clay soil has diffusive radon transport, with an average radon flux density of 37.4 ± 24.9 mBq m -2 s -1 and a range of 0.3 -167.8 mBq m -2 s -1 , while the location with sandy soil has convective radon transport with an average radon flux density of 93.6 ± 51.2 mBq m -2 s -1 and a range of 9.8 -302.2 mBq m -2 s -1 . This corresponds to about 8.3% of RFD measurements on site with clay soils exceeding the national reference level of 80 mBq m -2 s -1 and 45.6% exceeding them on the site with sandy soils. Average radon flux density values were then compared to meteorological variables using Pearson correlation analysis with Student's t-test. It was observed that radon flux density inversely correlates most strongly with ambient air temperature in both cases, while a weaker inverse correlation is observed with atmospheric precipitation and wind speed for the diffusive radon transport. Radon activity concentration in soil air correlates with the flux density and air temperature only in the case of convective radon transport and does not correlate with anything else.Introduction 222 Rn is the decay product of 226 Ra, which is in turn a member of 238 U decay chain. It is the most common isotope of radon with a half-life of 3.8 d and is considered to be the bigger health hazard than any of the other isotopes of radon. On decay, it produces a plethora of other radioactive elements, of which the alpha-emitters such as 218 Po, 214 Po and 210 Po are the biggest health risk. Decay products of radon are electrically charged and as such they readily adsorb on aerosols and produce a significant effective dose when they decay further in the lungs. This is the reason why radon is regarded as a class-I carcinogen and is the second biggest cause for lung cancer after smoking, according to WHO (WHO, 2009). Additionally, radon-related lung cancer risk stacks with the lung cancer risk from smoking, making radon even more dangerous to smokers than to non-smokers (Darby et al., 2009).Governments around the world set their radon limits and acceptable levels in accordance to International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP report 126, 2014) guidelines. These guidelines set a maximum radon activity concentration of 300 Bq m -3 in dwellings or workplaces, which corresponds to an effective dose of 4 and 14 mSv y -1 at work and home respectively.The efforts of the international scientific community are currently focused on...

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A new strategy to measure radon in an active volcanic island (Tenerife, Canary Islands)

Martin-Luis

Quesada

Eff-Darwich

et al. 2002

Environmental Geology

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A promising tool in forecasting seismovolcanic activity is the analysis of temporal and spatial variations of soil gases, in particular radon ( 222 Rn). However, the modulation of the radon signal induced by environmental factors could mask information directly related to volcanic activity and, hence, radon sensors should be placed in locations where the number and effect of environmental parameters are minimised. There is a vast network of galleries, underground tunnels for deep-water prospecting, in the volcanic island of Tenerife, Canary Islands. They provide very stable conditions where radon monitoring could be carried out. In this sense, radon data were collected for 2 years at two different galleries in an attempt to assess the potential of these locations as observatories of the gas dynamics within the volcanic edifice of Tenerife. It turned out that natural ventilation, driven by temperature gradients between the air inside and outside the gallery, strongly disturbs the radon signal. We recommend to place detectors where the thermal gradient is minimised, namely far away from the entrance of the gallery or where internal temperatures are much higher than external air temperatures. In any case, we believe galleries are good places to monitor radon emissions in the island of Tenerife.

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Effects of weather and soil characteristics on temporal variations in soil-gas radon concentrations

Cited by 15 publications

References 10 publications

High School Students as Citizen Scientists to Decrease Radon Exposure

High School Students as Citizen Scientists to Decrease Radon Exposure

Factors influencing radon transport in the soils of Moscow

A new strategy to measure radon in an active volcanic island (Tenerife, Canary Islands)

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