Authors:

Kayla Y. Xu

Date Created:

Not specified

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About Paper:

Radon naturally occurs in the soil and can seep into homes through cracks and leaks. The alpha particles formed by the decay of radon gas that when inhaled can damage bronchial epithelial cells in the lung that could cause cancer. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking. The EPA recommends that homes be fixed if the radon level is greater than 4 pCi/L. In Indiana, it is estimated that one in three homes has elevated radon levels. Furthermore, the radon levels at different locations of a home tend to differ significantly. Their values also change a lot throughout the year. Homeowners usually just do a one-time measurement of the radon level at one location which does not capture the overall radon profile of the entire home. Commercial radon detectors are expensive, and the data collected is not accessible or interoperable without programming interface. The present study aims to create an accessible and easy-to-use device to measure radon levels in one's home and analyze for trends spatially and temporally. To achieve this, the homemade device has to be calibrated and converted from counts of radioactive events to concentrations of radon decay products by analyzing the energy released from decay products. One of the decay products is Rn222, which can be easily measured. Since most homes are affected by ventilation and other outside factors, an equilibrium ratio can be applied to discern the original concentration of radon gas. The results can be used to analyze trends in radon exposure in homes across longer periods of times or create radon exposure maps of homes. Keywords: Radon; Radiation; Air Quality Monitoring; IoT

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Kayla Y. Xu