Word: radon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...economic exploitation of the giant energy companies, who seek the vast quantities of coal and uranium buried underneath the remaining Indian land. Indian workers, for example, have been sent to work in the uranium mines for years without adequate warning of, or protection from, the deadly radioactive gas radon and its breakdown products present in those mines. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, those workers face an increased chance of getting lung cancer...
...prior to earthquakes. As cracks open in rock, the rock's electrical resistance rises because air is not a good conductor of electricity. The cracks also increase the surface area of rock exposed to water; the water thus comes in contact with more radioactive material and absorbs more radon-a radioactive gas that the Soviet scientists had noticed in increased quantities in Garm-area wells. In addition, because the cracking of the rock increases its volume, dilatancy can account for the crustal uplift and tilting that precedes some quakes. The Japanese, for instance, noticed a 2-in. rise...
...astonished to learn that the country had some 10,000 trained earthquake specialists (more than ten times the American total). They were operating 17 major observation centers, which in turn receive data from 250 seismic stations and 5,000 observation points (some of which are simply wells where the radon content of water is measured). In addition, thousands of dedicated amateurs, mainly high school students, regularly collect earthquake data...
...practical start toward earthquake prediction, USGS is constructing a prototype network of automated sensing stations equipped with magnetometers, tiltmeters and seismographs in California's Bear Valley. They are also beginning to make measurements of radon in wells and electrical resistance in rock. Some of the data are already being fed into the USGS's central station at Menlo Park. But analysis is still being delayed by lack of adequate computer facilities...
...Radon Daughters. Maybe so, but scientists are now seriously concerned about the long-term effects of such low-level radiation on individuals living and working in buildings in which tailings were used. Of about 5,000 such structures in the Grand Junction area between 1,500 and 2,000 have been found to contain radon gas. This gas is so penetrating that it can seep through foundations and into basements and other closed spaces. Even more ominous is the fact that radon gas breaks down into "radon daughters," highly radioactive substances that physicians believe cause genetic defects and cancer...