{"id":49,"date":"2014-05-11T21:40:21","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T01:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/?p=49"},"modified":"2014-05-11T21:40:21","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T01:40:21","slug":"radioactivity-decay-pathway-radon-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/radioactivity-decay-pathway-radon-gas\/","title":{"rendered":"Radon: The Radioactivity Decay Pathway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Below is a detailed chart showing the radioactivity pathway to radon from the original U-238 atom. Also shown are the different types of radiation:<\/p>\n

Alpha Radiation – (from Radon-222 as an example) high energy helium nuclei (almost no penetrating power, but does a great deal of damage at close range to cells and DNA – will not penetrate outer layer of skin, but can cause direct harm to epithelial cells in the lungs if inhaled) It causes approximately 5 X the damage<\/strong> of gamma Radiation or X-Rays.<\/p>\n

Beta Radiation –\u00a0 high energy electron (much lighter than an alpha particle but it has a greater penetration)<\/p>\n

Gamma Radiation – high energy photon (essentially without mass but has a high penetration factor through shielding)<\/p>\n

\"Penetration<\/a>

Penetration and of Alpha, Beta and Gamma Radiation<\/p><\/div>\n

If you follow the diagram below, the radioactive decay of Radon-222 to Lead-210 results in the emission of 3 alpha particles, 2 beta particles and a discrete amount of gamma radiation. (the nature of which is an electromagnetic wave, not a particle) Because radon decay products (RDPs) are electrically charged particles, they readily adhere to suspended dust particles (which can be inhaled) or other surfaces in a phenomena known as “plate-out”. Either pure RDPs or the particles they are attached to can be inhaled.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Radon<\/a>

Radon Gas Decay Chart<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Below is a detailed chart showing the radioactivity pathway to radon from the original U-238 atom. Also shown are the different types of radiation: Alpha Radiation – (from Radon-222 as an example) high energy helium nuclei (almost no penetrating power, but does a great deal of damage at close range to cells and DNA – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[30,31,59,32,100,56,101,18,58,57],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radontestingdallas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}