Produces radium C, and so forth.

The products formed by the decay of radon are referred to as

radon daughters. The radon – daughter products are atoms of solid matter having relatively short
half-lives. During the decay process, either alpha or beta particles are emitted. These emissions
may also be accompanied by gamma-ray activity. It is the short-lived alpha particles and potential
alpha emitters such as radon and its daughters that are of prime concern to the ventilation
engineer. Because it is a gas and has a relatively long half-life, inhaled radon is exhaled before
large amounts of alpha particles are emitted. The daughter products, however, because they are
particles of solid matter, attach themselves to the dust that is present in the environment and
when inhaled, tend to be deposited and concentrated in the respiratory system. It has been
estimated that when both radon and daughters are inhaled, only about 5% of the alpha radiation
received is contributed by the radon (Holaday et al., 1957).

During radioactive decay, the individual members in the series are decaying and being formed at
the same time. At some point in time, equilibrium is reached, and the quantity of each member in
the series remains constant. At this time, each member of the series is being generated at the
same rate at which it is decaying. The time required for the radon daughters through radium C´ to
reach equilibrium from a given quantity of radon is approximately 3 h. in about 40 min, the alpha
energy reaches approximately 50% of maximum (rock and walker, 1970). For this reason, the
ventilation engineer must insure that unventilated or poorly ventilated areas do not exist.

Exposure to excessive concentrations of radon and radon daughters has been linked with a high
incidence of lung cancer. The maximum exposure limit for radon daughters has been set at 1.0
working level (WL), with a yearly cumulative exposure of 4 working-level months (WLMs). A
working level is defined as that concentration of short-lived radon-daughters products in a liter of
air that will yield 1.3 x 105 million electron volts (Me V) of alpha energy in decaying through
radium C´ (Holaday et al., 1957). The unit designated WLM is a cumulative measure of exposure
that is calculated by multiplying the average working level of exposure during a given time period
by the time of exposure and dividing by 173 (the number of working-level hours per working-level
month). An example will aid in understanding this concept.

Example 3.2 Given the following exposures during a shift:

5h 0.5 WL
2h 0.2 WL
1h 0.9 WL
Find the working-level months of exposure.

Solution:
(5ℎ)(0.5𝑊𝐿)+(2ℎ)(0.2𝑊𝐿)+(1ℎ)(0.9𝑊𝐿)
Average 𝑊𝐿 = 8ℎ

= 0.48𝑊𝐿
(0.48𝑊𝐿)(8ℎ)
𝑊𝐿𝑀 =
𝑊𝐿𝐻
173 𝑊𝐿𝑀

= 0.022𝑊𝐿𝑀