Post B1JSqZUvzo2vADAO4e by FaithfullJohn@mastodon.scot
 (DIR) More posts by FaithfullJohn@mastodon.scot
 (DIR) Post #B1HyOWLSvsjfUiUBjU by FaithfullJohn@mastodon.scot
       2025-12-09T19:22:04Z
       
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       I had not heard of the Watras Incident until today 🤯😱#Radon #Eeeek
       
 (DIR) Post #B1HyOXw11TZAQMatLE by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
       2025-12-16T00:11:55Z
       
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       @FaithfullJohn To what extent radon in the home is a genuine human health hazard is unclear — the evidence from miners is confounded by the usual problem of dust damage to the lungs, and worse, the Czech and East German miners who suffered incredible lung cancer incidences were effectively paid in cigarettes. There is substantial evidence to suggest radon is of little concern except to people with already–damaged lungs. But COVID has left a billion people with lung damage…
       
 (DIR) Post #B1HyjM3OOJxjenxzw8 by electropict@mastodon.scot
       2025-12-09T19:32:10Z
       
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       @FaithfullJohn Interesting.  My mother set off the alarms at Hunterston on a visit in the late 60s; they had no clue why, shrugged and waved her on.  We sort-of assumed it was exposure at Hiroshima, but now I think of it, this seems a more likely possibility.
       
 (DIR) Post #B1HyjNJjh2d7ZmcZ3A by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
       2025-12-16T00:15:41Z
       
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       @electropict @FaithfullJohn I have to question the idea of exposure from Hiroshima. Firstly, that was an air burst, so there was relatively little deposition of radioactive material locally. Most of the radiation exposure was "prompt" gammas and neutrons from the bomb itself. Beyond that, most of the fission products have short half–lives. To have a detectable residue 20 years later would imply an original level of contamination more than sufficient to kill.Aberdeen granite is more likely.
       
 (DIR) Post #B1HyjRhdO87hB3phr6 by electropict@mastodon.scot
       2025-12-10T07:08:22Z
       
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       @FaithfullJohn Actually I mentioned it and got the story in more detail than before, and it seems unlikely to be radon.  So, Hiroshima, or just radiant personality.
       
 (DIR) Post #B1IHfXZlVakXMa0Hvk by electropict@mastodon.scot
       2025-12-16T01:54:16Z
       
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       @publius @FaithfullJohn I've been doubtful about it for many decades.  However, Aberdeen granite is unlikely for someone who had only passed through Aberdeen and its environs briefly, if at all, by that time.  As compared to a longer period in Hiroshima a year or two previously.  We could of course speculate about other sources we know nothing of; Windscale perhaps.  But it is not clear why any more local source would not also have affected others in the party, living in the same house.
       
 (DIR) Post #B1IHfYbDhfVWXNgxpw by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
       2025-12-16T03:47:53Z
       
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       @electropict @FaithfullJohn The two most likely causes I can think of are (a) having eaten something the rest of the party had not, which had been contaminated by Soviet hydrogen bomb fallout (deposited heavily in the northern hemisphere, and more quickly than the US equatorial tests), possibly morel mushrooms ; or (b) a weird metabolic quirk. I mention the latter because my mother knew someone in high school who had such a quirk, causing her to retain some radioelement and register as "hot".
       
 (DIR) Post #B1JSqZUvzo2vADAO4e by FaithfullJohn@mastodon.scot
       2025-12-16T08:01:50Z
       
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       @publius Yes, the epidemiology of lots of natural radiation exposure is uncertain/ambiguous. And life evolved on a *more* radioactive planet in the past, and fundamentally relies on a radioactive element (potassium). But I think, all other things being equal, I'd prefer not to live in a house with 90KBq m-3 of radon...
       
 (DIR) Post #B1JSqaLOqk0tmviHqq by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
       2025-12-16T17:27:51Z
       
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       @FaithfullJohn Probably the most bizarre thing is that, in Germany and Austria where nuclear power is banned because people are terrified of the word "radioactivity" (nuclear power stations contribute approximately zero to anyone's radiation exposure), people will pay to go into "health mines" and breathe radon-laden air. Medical insurance even covers it!