Ode Coyote wrote: > How does smoke attract radon that's not already in the air? > And if it's already in the air, how does one not breath it anyway? >
There is radon in the air. Unfortunately in East Tennessee where I live, there can be quite a bit of it from the traces of radium in the underling shale rock. It is attracted to and attaches to smoke particles. When you breathe in radon gas, it is in the lungs about 1 second before being breathed out. The probability of it decaying during that second it pretty remote, so most of it does no harm. When attached to a smoke particle, the particle usually gets lodged in the lung or sinus mucus. The body eventually expells it as long as you have not smoked so much this mechanism no longer works. If the particle stays in the lungs for 4 hours, then the exposure to radiation from the radon (and the production of the solid daughter products such as polonium) will increase by the ratio of a second to 4*60*60 seconds, or about 14,400 to one. > > Some plants do assimilate heavy metals as they grow and tobacco is one, or > so I hear. > Radon and other radioactive elements such as found in granite are not > uncommon in Southern soil. That could be the link and the smoke may be > putting some radioactivity in the air, but I doubt it's the smoke that > attracts anything. This is a very well documented fact. I use to work in Oak Ridge. The employees at the labs were divided into two groups, those that smoked and those that did not. Those that did not were the ones allowed into areas that had radon because of this. http://www.epa.gov/iaq/radon/radonqa1.html Smokers are at higher risk of developing Radon-induced lung cancer http://www.epa.gov/iaq/radon/pubs/physic.html Exposure to both smoking and radon greatly enhances the risk of lung cancer. The Health Risk How Does Radon Induce Cancer? If inhaled, radon decay products (polonium-218 and polonium-214, solid form), unattached or attached to the surface of aerosols, dusts, and smoke particles, become deeply lodged or trapped in the lungs, where they can radiate and penetrate the cells of mucous membranes, bronchi, and other pulmonary tissues. The ionizing radiation energy affecting the bronchial epithelial cells is believed to initiate the process of carcinogenesis. Although radon-related lung cancers are mainly seen in the upper airways, radon increases the incidence of all histological types of lung cancer, including small cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. Lung cancer due to inhalation of radon decay products constitutes the only known risk associated with radon. In studies done on miners, variables such as age, duration of exposure, time since initiation of exposure and especially the use of tobacco have been found to influence individual risk. In fact, the use of tobacco multiplies the risk of radon-induced lung cancer enormously. http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/Drugs/THC/Health/cancer.rad.html Martell and Sweder (14) report that indoor radon decay products that pass from the room air through burning cigarettes into mainstream smoke are present in large, insoluble smoke particles that are selectively deposited at bifurcations. http://www.ul.cs.cmu.edu/webRoot/Books/National_Academy_Press_Books/env_tobacco_smoke/0000041.htm radon daughters) can be adsorbed on the particles (of smoke) Published refererences: When radon is present in the air, aerosol particles, including those of tobacco smoke, tend to adsorb the earlier decay products of radon, namely the so-called short-lived daughters (Po-218, Pb-214, Bi-214, and Po-214), i.e, those preceding the long-lived daughters in the decay chain (Raabe, 1969; Kruger and N6thing, 1979; Bergman and Axelson, 1983). In clean air, the short-lived radon daughters tend to be more unattached to aerosol particles and therefore are more easily deposited on walls, furniture, etc., especially through electrostatic forces. In the presence of an aerosol like tobacco smoke, some of the short-lived radon daughters are attached to particles, and therefore remain available for inhalation to a much greater extent than would otherwise be the case. Indoor radon-daughter concentration can more than double in the presence of tobacco smoke (Bergman and Axelson, 1983). Since radon daughter exposure is a well-known cause of lung cancer in miners, the described attachment of radon daughters to cigarette smoke would contribute to the carcinogenic potential of ETS (Little et al., 1965; Rajewsky and Stahlhofen, 1966; Radford and Martell, 1978). Given the presence of appreciable amounts of radon in indoor air, irradiation of the bronchial tract from radon daughters attached to smoke aerosol could be more important than the irradiation from the long-lived daughters in the tobacco itself. This subject needs further research, especially in light of recent reports on the widespread prevalence of indoor radon throughout the world. > > > It was uranium in the orange and yellow Fiestaware that was in the > radioactive glaze. It hasn't been made for many many years and is now very > valuable [if unusable] as a collectors item. Pieces of it are still kept at the labs as "legal" uranium sources. > > Lead [uranium that has been depleted of its radioactivity over millenia of > time] was once used in many ceramic glazes and is still used in some glass > to enhance optical qualities [Leaded glass crystal is one] and non food > ceramic ware. > Ken > > At 09:39 AM 11/3/02 -0500, you wrote: > >I agree that Po210 would cause cancer. I would like to see more research > >referenced that links the Po210 to calcium phosphate fertilizer. It is > known that > >radon is attracted to cigarette smoke, so a person in a smoke filled room > will > >end up getting exposed to about 100 times as much radon as if they were in > a room > >with clean air. This could easily explain the increase in smokers level > of Po210 > >(Po210 is the granddaughter of Radon 210). > > > >But many foods and such contain fairly large amounts of radioactivity. As a > >nuclear instrumentation engineer, we used some of them as radioactive > sources for > >testing. For instance a banana or avocado contains enough K40 (potassium > 40) to > >easily expose an X-ray negative if you leave one sitting of the plate for a > >while. The mantles for gas lanterns are extremely radioactive, the white > power > >they are doped with is Thorium 232. Some yellow plates have uranium oxide > as the > >yellow dye, and are so hot you can see things glow around them sometimes > from the > >radiation. > > > >Marshall > > > > > > > >[email protected] wrote: > > > >> f.capezzuto writes: > >> > >> > My sister got a Lupus like disease from taking a stop smoking drug. > >> > > >> > She got worse till...she stopped taking it...two weeks to fully > recover... > >> > > >> > Now she is back to smoking, and healthy. ;) > >> > > >> Engaging Atlantis Rising Magazine (11-12/02 Issue #36; article not yet > >> online) explaining why cigarette smoke is radioactive, and possibly the > >> patches and gums (depending on their ingredient sources): > >> http://www.atlantisrising.com/ > >> Recommendation/conclusion for smokers is to quit, or, ensure your > >> tobacco is grown with appropriate fertilizers. (Pot farmers take note.) > >> > >> The fertilizers used on the tobacco fields are the culprit (same article > >> reference): > >> > >> > Lives could be saved by simply changing fertilizers, they say... > >> > > >> > Almost 95% of the Lung Cancer caused by Cigarettes are allegedly the > result > >> > > >> > of using calcium phosphate fertilizer to grow the Tobacco... > >> > > >> > http://www.acsa.net/HealthAlert/lungcancer.html > >> > > >> jr > >> > >> -- > >> The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. > >> > >> Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org > >> > >> To post, address your message to: [email protected] > >> > >> Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html > >> > >> List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]> > > > >
