Radioactive gas levels in South African homes require urgent attention

[Sarg3_ZN]

So, the people employed to do this job are saying its a job that needs to start being done

Nice, hope they are busy finalizing the tenders.

 

[j4ck455]

If you're nervous about radiation and radioactivity, this recent article is essential reading:

Of Science, Fear, and Nuclear Radiation.

Learn how the LNT model might be causing more harm than good.

While exposure to high levels of these vapors can cause immediate effects, such as irritation and fatigue, breathing small amounts over a period of time is more concerning, according to Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Babies and small children can especially be damaged by very low concentrations of some of these materials,” he says. Long-term exposure to TCE, perc, or benzene is known or suspected to raise the risk of certain cancers and other health effects, although it still remains unclear if intruding vapors reach high enough concentrations to pose a significant threat to human health. Research also hints at a link between a woman’s exposure to TCE during the first trimester of pregnancy and fetal heart malformations — a finding that has added considerable controversy and complication in addressing vapor intrusion.

Radon appears in 4 paragraphs further down in the same article:

Regulators, as well as many scientists, didn’t take much notice of vapor intrusion until the 2000s. At that time, awareness had grown about the hazards of radon, a radioactive, carcinogenic gas that comes from the natural breakdown of uranium or thorium in the ground and was found to be leaking into basements. People had begun to connect the dots.

“The radon problem is essentially the same phenomenon, except it has a source that is natural rather than manmade,” explains Eric Suuberg, co-director of the Superfund Basic Research Program at Brown University.

As with radon, the average person is not likely to detect vapor intrusion. “You can’t smell it, you can’t see it,” he says. “You need sophisticated instrumentation to get to the kinds of low concentrations that are involved.”

As with radon, the average person is not likely to detect vapor intrusion.
Both radon and manmade vapors can enter a building in much the same way that dirt is drawn into a vacuum cleaner. Suction is created when air moves from areas of high pressure to comparatively low pressure. So just as the suction created at the floor by a vacuum cleaner pulls in small particles and traps them inside a bag or compartment, air movement can draw toxic vapors into a house through cracks or other openings in the foundation.

Sauce.

 

[Gordon_R]

The following story appeared in my news feed. It is behind a paywall, so I am only able to read a summary:

Exposed: Firms sell toxic mine dump sand to unsuspecting building industry | The Citizen

When the sand is mixed with cement and water, it releases radon gas, which is the second-biggest cause of lung cancer.

citizen.co.za

P.S. The Carte Blanche video was linked in my main News forum. The video and the discussion are mostly BS!?

 

[j4ck455]

Considering the levels of corruption in SA, don't be surprised if companies being paid to do mine dump rehabilitation, are selling the sand as is to construction companies (someone there gets paid under the table) that then use the sand in all sorts of large construction projects.