In today's podcast we answer a listener's question about the dangers of radon. What do you need to do to protect your family from this monster in the basement?

Hello everyone. Thanks for tuning in to another podcast. I appreciate all of you taking time out of your day to listen.  As always, I’d love to hear from you if youhave a topic you would like me to discuss or suggestions for improvement.  The best way to reach me is through mywebsite sci-vs-fear.com.

Before I get started with today's topic, I got some feedbackon the childbirthpodcast from Gretchen.  She includedsome research from the CDC that showed a large disparity in maternal mortalitybetween black and white women.  Thisstudy showed that black women had 2-5 times the maternal deaths of white women.

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html

Upon looking into it, there were several studies exploringthe reason for the discrepancy.  All ofthe authors acknowledged that attributing cause in cases like this is verydifficult.  I really appreciate Gretchenbringing this to my attention.  In the4-5 hours I have to research a topic, I am bound to miss something. 

The interesting thing to me is that the study I cited in thepodcast was also from the CDC, and it showed white women having slightly highermaternal mortality.  So, who isright?  I don't know.  Usually, when there is a discrepancy in datathe truth lies somewhere in the middle. These studies are a good demonstration of how the sample population canchange the study outcome.  One study thatI looked at found that some of the discrepancy is possibly due to the qualityof the hospitals more likely to be used by black mothers.  They found that white mothers using the samehospitals, had similar outcomes.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5915910/#R20 That would make sense since much of the improvement in mortality we saw in the1930s was attributable to improvements in medical care.

Gretchen also mentioned that in the US, maternal mortalityis on the rise and higher than Europe.  Itoo had found this during my research. Determining the factors responsible for this uptick would certainly beworth investigating.  I suspect theanswer is quite complex but worth pursuing. Thanks again for checking my facts and the input.

For today's podcast, I got a question from Brett. "Irecently had a salesman come to my house wanting to test it for radon.  He said that our area has high radon levelsand that my house could be poisoning my family. How dangerous is radon and am I putting my family at risk?"

So, today’s topic is

Radon: the monster living in the basement

Well, Brett, deciding to get your house checked andpotentially mitigated is a personal decision I can't make for you but there isa lot of interesting information available.

The US attention to Radon began in 1984 when constructionengineer Stanley Watras headed into work at the Limerick nuclear power plant inPottstown Pennsylvania.  The plant hadrecently installed monitors to detect any radiation contamination as workersleft for the day, but as Stanley entered the plant, the alarms went off.  Eventually, the cause was traced to his homewhere radon levels were found to be 2700pCi/L. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Nuclear/radon.html#c4This is the highest level ever detected in a home and is similar toconcentrations found in Colorado uranium mines in the 1950s. http://www-ns.iaea.org/tech-areas/communication-networks/orpnet/documents/cn223/8-chambers-keynote.pdf

What is radon?

So, what is radon? If you will remember from my radiation podcast,nuclear isotopes have a half-life, or how long an isotope sticks around.  Now, these isotopes don't just magicallybecome non-radioactive, but rather they decay into other elements.  Eventually, they decay into an element thatis happy with the ratio of protons, neutrons,