How are the risks of Radon known if it’s so unstable that an accurate molecular weight is still unknown?
In: 1
Because Radon is a gaseous byproduct of radiation in the ground. It being a byproduct means that it happens anywhere there’s a high amount of uranium, and it being gaseous means that it’s pretty hard to isolate and study it’s own properties independent of the environment.
But even with that, we do have a molecular weight. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Radon
Radon has been studied to death as well, including its health effects
[https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/radon.html?=undefined&wbdisable=true](https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/radon.html?=undefined&wbdisable=true)
Are you implying it is “unstable” because of its 3.8 day half life? During this time it can still be taken into the body and this is well documented.
We know the isotopic mass of Radon-222, the most stable isotope. It’s 222.0175763 Da.
What we don’t have is a *standard* atomic weight, because that requires averaging the masses of the known isotopes weighted according to their abundance on Earth, and with a few exceptions (Bismuth, Thorium, Uranium, etc.) we can’t calculate that for elements whose isotopes are *all* radioactive.
Latest Answers