decay products as tracers of indoor and outdoor aerosol particle size

Speciation of 210Po and 210Pb in air particulates determined by sequential extraction

“…Radon daughters have been widely used as tracers for indoor and outdoor aerosols particle size distribution (Harley et al, 2000;Gründel and PonstendTrfer, 2004;HTtzi and Winkler, 1996). Anand and Rangarajan (1990) have used the 210 Po/ 210 Pb activity ratio in surface air and dry fallout to estimate dry deposition velocity of atmospheric particulates carrying 210 Po and 210 Pb.…”

Radon and ‘King Solomon's Miners’: Faynan Orefield, Jordanian Desert

“…Doll (1959) noted that for 19th Century Schneeburg miners, the dose received by the lungs in that case would have been mostly due to the daughter products of radon carried on ore dust particles.He also suggested that the nature and quantity of atmospheric dust would have a significant effect in controlling the quantity of radioactive substances inhaled. Bale and Shapiro (1955) calculated that, with 'normal' dusty air, a concentration of 3=10 curies of radon per litre of air would y9 result in the tracheal epithelium receiving an average dose of 0.2 rad (radiation absorbed doses 0.002 Gy) per day.Fine aerosol particles (less than 2.5 mm) are also associated with significant health effects (Harley et al, 2000).Although their mass concentration may be low, the surface area may be relatively high; this size-fraction of the total aerosol load is a significant carrier of pollutants to the lung (Harley et al, 2000) because its small size results in efficient diffusion to the lung airways. Third, the presence in antiquity of active mining and rock-breaking, as well as crushing is likely to have directly increased the escape of radon directly as gas from the rock (Jha et al, 2001;Lipsztein et al, 2001) and indirectly at some sites as a result of the quarrying or tapping into radon-bearing groundwaters.In mines, 'plate-out' takes place (Phillips and Denman, 1997).This is the preferential adherence of larger particles to the walls of a cave or mine-with the result that lower concentrations of radon progeny will prevail in the mine atmosphere.If there were high loadings of dust in the mine atmosphere-from the ingress of dust in a storm, from mining the ores, or the general stirring of materials through movement in and out of the mines then radon progeny will attach to these suspended particles.Plate-out is then delayed, as the alpha particles are much less mobile.The radioactive species will, therefore, persist in the atmosphere much longer than if dustyaerosol particles were not present (Phillips and Denman, 1997).Such high loadings of particles would mean that radon progeny could be preferentially breathed in by mine workers.The radon loads that might have been ingested on dust via dirty hands, on food, or drunk in water are unknown.However , Cross et al (1985) indicated that the dose to the respiratory system outweighs the dose to the digestion system.Radon loads in the spring waters emerging from the proterozoic spring waters in the Wadis are unknown; activity levels from hot springs at Zarah in the Dead Sea area to the north-west were below acceptable concentrations in drinking water Moise et al, 2000).…”

Fast recovery of lead from hydrochloric acid via a novel silica-supported anion exchange resin for the determination of 210Pb in environmental samples

“…210 Pb leaves the atmosphere quickly by wet washout or dry deposition and readily enters soil or water [2,3]. The measurement of 210 Pb is significant for environmental studies, as it provides quantitative information on the flux of 222 Rn and its daughter nuclides in the atmosphere [4][5][6]. Such measurements are applied in uranium exploration, monitoring radionuclide migration in the uranium series, and luminescence dating of sediments [7][8][9].…”