Is “radon health care” “health care” or “playing with life”?

In recent years, "radon health care" has suddenly become popular, and has been linked to keywords such as "natural", "medical", and "noble". It looks very high-end. So, what is this so-called "radon health care"?

Let me summarize it first: Radon can produce ionizing radiation and can also turn into dust and accumulate in the body. It is a dangerous radioactive carcinogen. Do you dare to use it for health? It's too late to stay away from it!

Some friends may ask, judging from the advertisements, radon is purely "natural", how can it be harmful? The word "natural" is beautiful, but unfortunately, many purely natural things are harmful. If you don't believe me, look at the purely natural typhoons, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, poisonous snakes, poisonous mushrooms, smallpox, cholera, plague, rabies, none of which we can afford, and radon is no exception.

Let's take a closer look at what radon is and what harm it can cause.

01

What is radon?

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Radon is element 86, located in the lower right corner of the periodic table. Let's see what information we can read from this grid.

The name contains "qi", indicating that it exists in gaseous state at normal temperature.

It is located in the far right column, indicating that it is an inert element with a full outer shell of electrons, belonging to the same family as helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon used in neon lamps. It almost does not form compounds with any element.

Its location at the bottom indicates that its atomic number is very large, and it is almost the "fattest" in its family. In fact, we can see that the position below it [气奥] is marked with an asterisk of an artificial element, that is, among the naturally occurring inert elements, radon is the "heaviest" - its density is eight times that of air, and it will accumulate in low-lying areas like water.

Its element symbol Rn is printed in red, indicating that it is a radioactive element that can emit ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is a truly dangerous thing. The Hiroshima atomic bomb, Chernobyl, and Fukushima nuclear leaks are all concrete examples of radioactivity.

To summarize the above paragraph in one sentence, radon is a very "heavy" natural radioactive inert gas.

02

Where is Radon?

Radon gas in nature is produced by the radioactive decay of radium, which is mainly obtained by the decay of uranium. Because uranium is ubiquitous in the earth's crust (even if the amount is small, it is evenly distributed), various natural building stones such as granite or marble may emit radon gas, and hot springs or mineral springs from underground rock crevices are also more likely to contain radon.

There are many isotopes of radon, and the half-life of the longest-lived isotope is only about 3.8 days. That is to say, after 3.8 days at most, its total amount will be halved, and after another 3.8 days, only one-quarter will remain. Therefore, a certain amount of radon will quickly decay into other elements, and it is difficult to continue to accumulate. Even if it accumulates, it will eventually reach the balance point of production-extinction. This balance point is extremely low: an average of 150 radon atoms per milliliter. In the entire earth's atmosphere, there are only a few dozen grams of radon gas at any time.

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Although these atoms called "radon" disappear quickly after they are produced, their sources and decay offspring will exist for a long time. The sources will continue to be replenished, and the "therapeutic effects" of their offspring can last for many years.

Based on the source of radon gas and its high density, we can easily infer that it is easily produced and accumulated in caves, poorly ventilated hot springs, underground mines or basements, especially in areas with granite or shale with high uranium concentrations. Radon is almost non-existent at sea level and is also relatively rare in open or high-altitude areas.

So, how does radon affect our health? Does it really have any therapeutic effects?

03

Radon's "Therapeutic Effects"

The most significant "therapeutic effect" of radon gas is that it causes lung cancer ...

It turns out that radon itself is a gas that can be directly inhaled by the human body, or decay into other elements in the air, and the progeny atoms are adsorbed on aerosols and inhaled by the human body. Once in the lungs, these decay products are solid dust and are unwilling to come out easily.

Let's take a look at the descendants of radon, which mainly consists of a decay chain like this:

Radon 222 (half-life 3.8 days)

→Polonium 218 (3.1 minutes) →Lead 214 (26.8 minutes)

→ Bismuth 214 (19.9 minutes)

→Polonium 214 (0.164 milliseconds) →Lead 210 (22.3 years)

→ Bismuth 210 (5 days)

→Polonium 210 (138.4 days) →Lead 206 (stable)

Those we specifically marked in black are all alpha decay. In other words, each radon atom must emit alpha particles 4 times before it can finally reach stability. If the radiation source is outside the body, the bombardment of alpha particles is not a big deal. A piece of paper can block it, and it is not a big deal if it hits the stratum corneum of the skin. However, if the radiation source is inside the body, the consequences of internal irradiation of alpha particles are very serious. Its radiation energy will be completely absorbed by the human body, destroying cells and causing cancer.

The chain part that is not marked in black is β decay, and its radiation intensity is also very high, but the difference between internal and external irradiation is not as significant as that of α rays. In addition, the decay process is accompanied by high-energy γ rays (higher energy than medical X-rays), all of which are powerful weapons for destroying lung cell DNA.

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In the United States, an average of 21,000 lung cancer deaths are attributed to radon gas each year. According to the World Health Organization, for every 100 Bq/m³ increase in the long-term average radon concentration (that is, 100 radon atoms decay per cubic meter per second), the risk of lung cancer increases by 16%, and the increase in lung cancer risk is proportional to the increase in radon exposure. This is easy to understand. Let's look at the decay chain above. There is a lead 210 stage with a half-life of 22.3 years. They will accumulate for a long time and fight a protracted war.

These so-called radon health services often mention that "radon can cure tumors" - this statement itself is basically true, but what the advertisements don't say is that the process must be strictly controlled and precisely guided, and the radon must be wrapped in gold or other materials that can shield α and β particles and placed in the lesion. These operations must be performed by professional doctors, and the whole-body "radon health" is useless. Besides, radiotherapy is only considered when there is cancer, what is there to treat if there is no disease?

04

Taking radioactive substances for health care has serious consequences

In fact, the concept of "radon health care" is not new. The use of radioactive substances as panaceas for external and internal application has existed since a hundred years ago when humans first discovered radioactive substances. At that time, in Europe and the United States, radium water, radium-thorium toothpaste, radium bath salts, radium chocolate, and other radioactive daily necessities were popular for a time. The "drug effects" were the same as those of "radon health care" today: weight loss and blood pressure reduction, fatigue elimination, immunity enhancement, treatment of arthritis, endocrine diseases, skin pigmentation, etc., all of which could not explain the physical principles or provide medical evidence. The advertising slogans were "I will write whatever you want to cure." For example, the advertising slogan for radium-thorium toothpaste was "Your teeth will shine with radioactive brilliance."

Radiation marks left by Biles' teeth on the photographic plate. Image source: Scientific American

What happened next? After these radioactive substances entered the human body, they accumulated in large quantities at the mandibular joint, and the alpha particle internal irradiation "beat" the mandibular joint to pieces. A socialite/golf player named Ebenezer M. Byers (readers can search for "Byers radium water" to find out) continued to drink radium water from 1927 to 1930. When he died in 1932, only two front teeth in his upper jaw had not been removed, and his entire mandibular bone was not preserved. Some cavities formed in his skull and bone tissue throughout his body. His teeth can indeed leave a "radioactive glow" on photographic film.

Even in recent years, we still see news about people abusing radioactive substances for "health care" and "safety", but ending up suffering the consequences, such as the one below.

Image source: Weibo

Not to mention those who don’t know much about radioactivity and who are pursuing fashion with their lives, even scientists have been seriously hurt. The first generation of scientists who studied related fields did not have a deep understanding of the hazards of radioactivity and did not do enough protective work in normal times, so their deaths were highly related to radioactivity research. For example, Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie’s doctoral supervisor and the source of the name of the standard unit of radioactivity “Becquerel”, died of “severe skin burns, suspected to be related to handling radioactive materials.”

Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia, which is also a typical radiation sickness. Her manuscripts can only be read in protective clothing. But they were not radioactive quacks. Their research on radioactive substances promoted the development of physics and medicine (Pierre Curie even sacrificed his own health to confirm Becquerel's reflection that "radium can cause skin ulcers"). I pay tribute to them.

Therefore, let’s not continue playing this kind of death game that uses radioactive materials to maintain health.

Author | Qu Jiong, a popular science writer, has published works in the National Museum, the National Space Administration, etc.

Review | Sun Xiaoyan, attending physician at Shanghai Fifth People's Hospital affiliated to Fudan University

This article is produced by the "Science Rumor Refutation Platform" (ID: Science_Facts). Please indicate the source when reprinting.

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