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Title: Geologic controls on radon

Book ·
OSTI ID:7272972

This text provides a review of recent research on geological controls of [sup 222]Rn concentrations in soil gas in relation to the problem of high indoor radon concentrations in houses. The importance of the subject matter is highlighted in the preface by the observation that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 15,000 to 25,000 deaths result from radon-induced lung cancer each year in the United States. The text contains 8 Chapters: (1) Geology of radon in the United States; (2) Sensitivity of soil radon to geology and the distribution of radon and uranium in the Hylas Zone Area, Virginia; (3) Geologic and environmental implications of high soil-gas radon concentrations in The Great Valley, Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, West Virginia; (4) Soil radon distribution in glaciated areas: an example from the New Jersey Highlands; (5) Radon in the coastal plain of Texas, Alabama, and New Jersey; (6) Effects of weather and soil characteristics on temporal variations in soil-gas radon concentrations; (7) A theoretical model for the flux of radon from rock to ground water; (8) The influence of season, bedrock, overburden, and house construction on airborne levels of radon in Maine homes. The individual chapters are written by different authors in the form of self-contained research papers, each of which is followed by a comprehensive list of references.

OSTI ID:
7272972
Resource Relation:
Other Information: From review by A.B. Mackenzie, Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, in Surveys in Geophysics, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan 1994); Related Information: Geological Society of America Special Paper 271
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English