Radon was discovered by Friedrich Ernst Dorn, a German chemist, in 1900 while studying radium’s decay chain. Originally named niton after the Latin word for shining, “nitens,” it has been known as radon since 1923.\u00a0Since radium was expensive and in great demand for the treatment of cancer, radon gas, which is a natural decay product of radium, also was thought to have similar curative powers.\u00a0 So radon was sort of a “poor man’s radium”.<\/p>\n
In the United States, epidemiological studies conducted after WWII showed there was an unusually high incidence of lung cancer among uranium miners.\u00a0 Eventually, occupational limits were established for radon concentrations in uranium mines.<\/p>\n
Elevated levels of radon in homes were not recognized as a potential public health threat until the mid-1980’s.\u00a0 Mr. Stanley Watras, a worker at the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant located in eastern Pennsylvania, set off a radiation detector upon entering the nuclear power plant.\u00a0 At the time the nuclear power plant was under construction and had not received its nuclear fuel. The utility discovered extremely elevated levels of radon in his new home.\u00a0 The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania began testing homes for radon and found elevated levels of radon in them as well. Elevated levels of radon were associated with a geological structure called the Redding Prong.\u00a0 In Virginia there is a similar structure called the Triassic Basin. Virginia also has several Uranium deposits of various size and depth scattered throughout the state. If these deposits are close enough to the surface, they could possibly cause high radon in structures that are built over them.<\/p>\n
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was enlisted to provide additional assistance and other states were encouraged to study the indoor radon issue.\u00a0In 1986, VDH conducted a state-wide survey of 800 homes and found that approximately 12% of the homes that were screened for radon had elevated levels of radon above 4 picocuries\/liter, EPA’s recommended action level.\u00a0 In 1992 the EPA supported a larger study of approximately 1,600 homes.\u00a0 The results of this study verified the results of the earlier study.\u00a0 The results also indicated that radon levels generally were not elevated in Tidewater Virginia, which is east of the fall line of Virginia’s rivers (roughly East of Interstate 95).<\/p>\n
During the late 1980’s the EPA established an extensive Indoor Radon Program which provided funding to the states through State Indoor Radon Grants.\u00a0 This program made publications available for the states to distribute important information about radon to the public, established regional training centers for radon professionals and a radon proficiency program for radon testers.\u00a0 However, the EPA proficiency program was discontinued in 1998. Certification of radon professionals is currently conducted by either the National Radon Safety Board (NRSB) or the National Radon Proficiency Program (NRPP) of the American Association of Radiation Safety Technicians (AARST).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Office of Radiological Health | 109 Governor Street| Richmond, VA 23219<\/p>\n
Telephone (804) 864-8150<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Radon was discovered by Friedrich Ernst Dorn, a German chemist, in 1900 while studying radium’s decay chain. Originally named niton after the Latin word for shining, “nitens,” it has been known as radon since 1923.\u00a0Since radium was expensive and in great demand for the treatment of cancer, radon gas, which is a natural decay product […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":681,"featured_media":0,"parent":74,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n