Study of the atmospheric chemistry of radon progeny in laboratory and real indoor atmospheres

Technical Report · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6575562· OSTI ID:6575562

Hopke, P K

This report describes studies on the chemical and physical behavior of the [sup 218]Po atom immediately following its formation by the alpha decay of radon. Because small changes in size for activity in the sub-10 nm size range result in large changes in the delivered dose per unit exposure, this behavior must be understood if the exposure to radon progeny and its dose to the cells in the respiratory tract are to be fully assessed. The specific tasks of the controlled laboratory studies are to determine the formation rates of [center dot]OH radicals formed by the radiolysis of air following radon decay, to examine the formation of particles by the radiolytic oxidation of substances like SO[sub 2] ethylene, and H[sub 2]S to lower vapor pressure compounds and determine the role of gas phase additives such as H[sub 2]O and NH[sub 3] in determining the particle size, to measure the rate of ion-induced nucleation using a thermal diffusion cloud chamber, and to measure the neutralization rate of [sup 218]Po[sub x][sup +] in O[sub 2] at low radon concentrations. Tasks of the exposure studies in occupied indoor spaces are to initiate measurements of the activity size distributions in actual homes with occupants present so that the variability of the indoor activity size distributions can be assessed with respect to indoor aerosol sources and general lifestyle variations of the occupants, to initiate a prospective study of the utility of measurement of deposited [sup 210]Pb embedded in glass surfaces as a measure of the long-term, integrated exposure of the population to radon, and to develop the methodology to determine the hygroscopicity of the indoor aerosol so that the changes in deposition efficiency of the radioactive indoor aerosol with hygroscopic growth in the respiratory tract can be assessed.

• Research Organization: Clarkson Univ., Potsdam, NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-90ER61029
• OSTI ID: 6575562
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/61029-13; ON: DE93012236
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540230* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
560161 -- Radionuclide Effects
Kinetics
& Toxicology-- Man
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
AIR POLLUTION
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BUILDINGS
CHEMISTRY
DEPOSITION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FLUIDS
GASES
GLASS
HEAVY NUCLEI
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
INHALATION
INTAKE
ISOTOPES
MINUTES LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
PARTICLE SIZE
PARTICLES
PARTICULATES
POLLUTION
POLONIUM 218
POLONIUM ISOTOPES
PROGRESS REPORT
RADIOISOTOPES
RADON
RARE GASES
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
SIZE