Why is radon dangerous?

Answer 1

Radium is a highly radioactive alkali metal. It undergoes alpha decay, which is radioactive decay by the release of an alpha particle from a nucleus. The alpha particle is a helium-4 nucleus, and it can do a lot of damage. If an individual is up against a radium source, or if he ingests or breathes radium, he will have tissues exposed to the extremely destructive radiation. That's what makes radium so dangerous. That and the fact that its radioactive decay daughters are also radioactive, and an individual exposed to radium and having that radium decay (causing biological damage) will then face the radiation hazards of the daughters of radium, because they are all radioactive, too. A link is provided to the Wikipedia article on radium.

Answer 2

Answerbecause it kills people. Radon (named after radium) was discovered in 1900 by Friedrich Ernst Dorn, who called it radium emanation. In 1908 William Ramsay and Robert Whytlaw-Gray, named it niton (Latin nitens meaning "shining"; symbol Nt) and isolated it, determined its density, and determined that it was the heaviest known gas. It has been called "radon" since 1923. The first major studies of the health concern occurred in the context of uranium mining, first in the Joachimsthal region of Bohemia and then in the Southwestern United States during the early Cold War. Because radon is a product of uranium, uranium mines have high concentrations of radon and its highly radioactive daughter products. Many Native Americans, Mormons, and other miners in the Four Corners region contracted lung cancer and other pathologies as a result of high levels of exposure to radon gas while mining uranium for the Atomic Energy Commission in the mid-1950s. Safety standards instituted required expensive ventilation and as such were not widely implemented or policed. The danger of radon exposure in dwellings was discovered in 1984 with the case of Stanley Watras, an employee at the Limerick nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Watras set off the radiation alarms on his way into work for two weeks straight while authorities searched for the source of the contamination. They were shocked to find that the source was astonishingly high levels of radon, around 100,000 Bq/m3 (2,700 pCi/L), in his house's basement and it was not related to the nuclear plant. The risks associated with living in his house were estimated to be equivalent to smoking 135 packs of cigarettes every day. Following this event, which was highly publicized, national radon safety standards were set, and radon detection and ventilation became a standard homeowner concern. Radon is the second most frequent cause of lung cancer, after cigarette smoking, and radon-induced lung cancer is thought to be the 6th leading cause of cancer death overall.[2][3]

radon is an element in the Periodic Table also.

Answer 3

Radon is a radioactive gas commonly given off by granite as part of the disintegration of radium. If allowed to accumulate, under a stone building for example, it could be an environmental hazard.

It emits ionizing radiation, an alpha particle in particular, and if breathed, this can cause cancers.

Ionizing radiation causes damage by knocking off electrons from the shell of an atom (thus making it appear a different element for chemistry), or by changing the nucleus - more unlikely.

Answer 4

Radon is dangerous because it is a highly radioactive gas. Inhaling it is known to cause lung cancer. You cannot see it, feel it, smell it or taste it.

Answer 5

Not only is it a very radioactive gas but its also the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer, the first being smoking.

Answer 6

Radon is a radioactive gas, and can cause radiation sickness, cell damage, or cancer if inhaled.

Answer 7

It is radioactive and gives off ionizing radiation that can cause lung cancer.

Answer 8

Radon is a radioactive element; radon can be a cause of lung cancers.