WHERE IS RADIOACTIVITY ?

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RADIOACTIVITY IS EVERYWHERE

All of us are exposed to nuclear radiation every day of our lives from naturally occurring minerals within the earth, traces of radioactive elements within our bodies and cosmic rays from the sun and stars.

These sources are mostly unavoidable. However, you should be concerned about local concentrations of nuclear radiation from Radon (check your basement), uranium mine waste, dissolved radioactive elements in the underground water supply, such as radium salts and radon, and wind blown dust and gases from man made radioactive waste around the hundreds of sites dedicated to nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons manufacturing plants and nuclear waste landfills.

During airplane flights, at crusing altitude, passengers and crew are exposed to elevated levels of cosmic rays, 20 to 40 times those experienced at sea level.

Nuclear particles are forcefully ejected by unstable atomic elements, each with its own preferred method of releasing the overabundance of energy contained in its nucleus. It first must vibrate itself into the proper pattern. If you were to shake a coin out of a piggy bank you would succeed only when the coin and the slot were aligned and moving in the right direction. Although no one can predict when an individual unstable nucleus of the radioactive atom will give up its excess energy, the time it takes for half of a large number of these atoms to decay can be predicted with statistical accuracy. This is know as the half life of the radioactive element. After ten half life periods have passed, less than a tenth of one percent of the radiation will remain. Some half-life times are long enough to require the radioactive source to be isolated from public exposure for decades, centuries or even millennia.

RADIOACTIVE CHEMICALS

Radon, a gaseous breakdown product of radium, can build up in enclosed spaces such as basements. YOU SHOULD TEST YOUR BASEMENT AND YOUR HOUSE FOR RADON. YOU SHOULD CHECK ANY HOUSE YOU CONSIDER BUYING OR MOVING IN. A potent alpha emitter, radon is believed to cause as many as 30,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the United States, alone. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has mandated some very sophisticated procedures for measuring trace amounts of radon gas at the levels likely to be found in enclosed spaces. A known volume of air is forced through a filter and the filter is checked for radioactive radon breakdown products. If above average count level within enclosed interior spaces such as basements and ground floor level closets are detected by the RS-500, additional approved tests for radon should be done. Even if counts look normal, we recommend additional approved tests.

Potassium-40, a strong beta emitter with a long half life of over 1.3 billion years, makes up only a small proportion (less than 0.02%) of naturally occurring potassium salts. The long half-life means relatively few atoms of potassium-40 decay at a time. The total radioactivity is about 1/1000 of an equal weight of uranium salts. Potassium salt deposits in some places has a higher concentration of potassium-40. Since potassium is indispensable for life of plants and animals, we will find it in almost all foods. Some brands of "salt substitute" made mainly from potassium salts might be marginally more radioactive than others, depending on the source of the ingredients.

During normal operation, nuclear power reactor losses from buildup of gasses and easily vaporized elements are continuously released in small amounts: tritium, iodine, cesium, krypton and xenon. Of these, the tritium can oxidize to form radioactive water and organic compounds. Radioactive iodine concentrates in the thyroid gland and contributes to thyroid malfunctions and tumors. Cesium compounds settle in the bones. Radioactive krypton and xenon are inert gases that do not readily form compounds, but are slightly soluble in body fat and decay to form elements that settle in bone tissue.

NATURALLY RADIOACTIVE MINERALS

Among the representative list of minerals that are radioactive, a number are listed below. These are concentrated enough to be of interest to mining companies. In addition, many areas have dissolved radioactive salts in sub-surface water greatly in excess of environmentally safe limits and must be treated and filtered to specifically remove this hazard.

In some areas of the USA, mining companies use chemical solutions pumped into the ground to wash out uranium salts. In the USA alone, a quarter of the drinking water supplies contain 2000 picocuries per liter of radon gas. Five percent of the domestic water supplies have radon levels above 10,000 picocuries per liter. Water pumped from private wells should be tested for radioactivity.

In the process of oil exploration and recovery, uranium and radium bearing formations are drilled through and the fluids used to cool and lubricate the drilling bits can be contaminated. This drilling fluid or "mud" often was left to dry in an open pit. Insoluble radium compounds can build up or "plate up" to alarming levels on the pipe.

Over three billion cubic feet of mine wastes from the uranium and thorium extraction still await proper disposal. These waste heaps remain about 85% as radioactive as the original ore from the radioactive breakdown products of uranium and thorium. Thousands of tons of ore were transported for processing to areas near major population centers, like Niagara, NY, Salt Lake City, Utah, Cincinnati, Ohio and Chicago, IL. In some cases, the mining wastes were used to make concrete for buildings and roads. These m ounds of milling wastes are persistent sources of soluble radium salts and radon gas.

Some radioactive minerals collected are:

• Autunite, Ca(UO2)2 (PO4)2 . 10-12 H2O, Hydrated calcium uranium phosphate formed as mixed yellow or green tetragonal platelets that fluoresce bright yellow-green. Cornwall,England; Mount Pine, North Carolina; Western Colorado; Marysville, Utah; near Spokane, Washington. Mount Painter, Australia; Autun, France. Novacekite, Mg rich form of Autunite.
• Brannerite, UTi2O6, A uranium titanate with rare earth and iron oxides varying the composition in rounded black or brown pebbles and triclinic crystals. Found in W. Custer County, Idaho; Elliot Lake District, Ontario,Canada; Transvaal, S. Africa.
• Carnotite, K2(UO2)2(VO4)2 . 3H2O, A potassium uranium vanadate in sandy or powdery bright yellow masses. Found in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah in USA; Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada; Radium Hill, Australia; Katanga; Mexico.
• Monazite, (Ce, La, Yt, Th)(PO4), Mixed rare earth and thorium phosphates in white, yellow to brown monoclinic prismatic waxy looking crystals. Found in granite and gneiss worldwide.
• Thorianite, ThO2, Thorium dioxide in dark grey to black cubic crystals. Found in Easton, Pennsyvania; Betroka, Madagascar; Balagoda, Sri Lanka. Uranothoranite is a thorium rich mineral found with thoranite.
• Thorite, ThSiO4, Thorium silicate in yellow-brown to black, tetragonal or pyramidal crystals or masses. Found in Champlain, New York; Esmark, Norway.
• Torbernite, Cu(UO2)2(PO4)2 . 12H2O, A copper uranium phosphate in greenish tabular crystals or scales. Found in Cornwall, England; New Mexico, Hannibal Mine, S. Dakota; the La Sal Mountains of Utah, USA; Mount Painter, Australia; Schneeberg, Germany.
• Tyuyamunite, Ca(UO2)2(VO4)2 . 10H2O, A hydrous calcium uranium vanadate in greenish yellow scales or masses. Found in Montrose County, Colorado, Garfield County, Utah, USA; Turkestan, USSR.
• Uraninite, UO2, Uranium dioxide in greenish or grayish brown or black cubic crystals or masses also known as pitchblende or cleveite.
• Uranophane or uranotile , Ca(UO2)2(Si2O7 . 6H2O, A hydrated calcium uranium silicate in yellow needle-like crystals or crystaline masses. Found in Mitchell County, N. Carolina, USA; Silesia, Czechoslovakia; Saxony, Germany.
• Zircon, the semi-precious stone, can be radioactive, even to the extent that it changes crystal structure over a long period of time.

COMMON RADIOACTIVE ITEMS

Radium dial, glow-in-the-dark watch and clock faces and compasses, especially those painted in the first half of the 20th century contain large amounts of alpha and gamma emitters that can raise count rate by ten to twenty times or more next to the watch. Rates from a night table alarm clock manufactured in the fifties emit about 40 counts per minute a foot in front of the glass cover. Recently, a fad in jewelry has led to the use of bare watch faces and other parts from broken watches combined as pins or brooches. Some of these have the radium containing paint on them and are quite dangerous. The paint could flake or rub off and be inhaled or eaten.

Watches manufactured since the mid 1960's use tritium, H3, a radioactive form of heavy hydrogen, with a half-life of 12.26 years or Promethium-147, a totally man-made radioactive element with a half-life of 2.64 years. Both of these elements are weak beta and gamma emitters and cannot send many particles beyond the cover glass of the watch. However, greater quantities of these elements must be used to make the same amount of light from luminous paint.

Thorium oxide coated gas lamp mantles used in ornamental gas lanterns and gas burning camping lamps are radioactive. The thorium oxide is chosen because it can be raised to white heat without decomposing. However, the mantle does become extremely fragile and will powder into a fine ash which can potentially be inhaled or ingested. Thorium is a natural alpha emitter with the potential for increasing lung tumors. Thorium disintegrates to produce radon-220, an alpha particle emitting radioactive gas. Other uses of thorium include improving alloys of tungsten and magnesium. Thoriated tungsten welding rods are partly vaporized in the arc welding process. Filaments in electronic tubes and television picture tubes have be coated in thorium oxides to produce electrons more easily.

Cerium oxide, a powdery pink glass and jewelry polishing compound, while not radioactive in itself, is extracted from monazite sands containing thorium oxide. Trace amounts of thorium oxide remain with the extracted cerium oxide. Thorium oxide is a potent alpha particle emitter that poses a serious threat to internal organs if inhaled or ingested.

Most smoke detectors contain about 1 microcurie of Americium 241, an alpha emitter deposited on a thin piece of metal foil surrounded by a metal shield. The alpha particles cannot escape unless the smoke detector is taken apart or vaporized in a fire, but some gamma rays are emitted. The RS-500 reads about 30 counts per minute higher than the background average when place on top off a smoke alarm. The half-life of Am-241 is 458 years and certainly will outlast the useful life of the smoke detector.

Antistatic brushes for photographic use in removing dust from film negatives contain Polonium 210, an alpha emitter that will vaporize appreciably at 55 degrees C (130 degrees F), a temperature that is reached easily on the dashboard of an automobile on a hot summer day. This could be another inhalation danger, if the manufacturing method does not adequately contain the Polonium.

The fluorescent lamp starters, the small cylindrical package mounted in some types of lighting fixtures, contains a glass, gas-filled bulb with less than 15 nanocuries of krypton 85, a beta and gamma emitting radioactive gas with a 10.4 year half life. The purpose of the krypton is to ionize the other gases in the starter tube to assist the lamp starting on a cold morning. Actual amounts must be smaller. The RS-500 has not detected any increase in count levels around these devices.

Pottery glazes and art glass, some ceramic glazed jewelry and cloisonné enameled jewelry contain high percentages of uranium oxides to produce bright yellows and oranges. Fiesta Red china dishes by Fiestaware produced through 1971 emit gamma and beta. Acidic foods left in contact with this chinaware will dissolve small amounts of these radioactive elements which will be ingested. Enameled jewelry made with these glazes and worn next to the skin is hazardous.

Some gemstones, notably natural zircons, are radioactive. Additionally, some topaz, beryl and tourmaline stones were treated with neutrons from atomic reactors to deepen or change their color. This treatment left some stones hot enough to be of concern, about 0.2 milliroentgens per hour. Some artificial diamonds are made from metal oxides, such as yttrium oxide stabilized with thorium oxide, a radioactive compound.

Some porcelain teeth, artificially colored with uranium containing metal oxides to improve the reflective appearance, can expose the mouth to 1000 millirem per year for each cap. This is two and a half times the average whole body yearly exposure from all natural sources and medical X-rays.

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