System for determining health risk due to radon progeny and uses thereof

Abstract

A system for determining the health risk, due to alpha emitters attached to particles of various sizes, these alpha emitters being due to the level of radon, to persons within an environment where radon may be present. In one embodiment, a sample of air is passed through a filter element having a collection characteristic such that essentially all particulate material, with their associated radon progeny, is removed from the air. The alpha particles emitted by the decay of these radon progeny are detected with an appropriate alpha particle spectrometer. The realtime resolving of the energies of individual of the daughter atoms permits a determination of the working level or PAEC associated with the radon. In those instances where lung dose is to be determined, the filter element has two portions. The first portion is designed to remove particles in a manner like that which occurs in the human nasal passage. The second portion of the filter element is designed to simulate the collection of particles by the lungs. An analysis of the energies of the alphas emitted from the radon progeny collected on the second portion is used to compute the lung dose. Either of the embodiments can be used to provide a signal that would be used for the operation of any radon mitigation equipment associated with the environment. Other uses for the resultant signals are discussed.