Information Collection: Radiation Sampling and Exposure Records

Airborne radon and radon daughters exist in every uranium mine and in several other underground mining commodities. Radon is radioactive gas. It diffuses into the underground mine atmosphere through the rock and the ground water. Radon decays in a series of steps into other radioactive elements, which are solids, called radon daughters. Radon and radon daughters are invisible and odorless. Decay of radon and its daughters results in emissions of alpha energy. Medical doctors and scientists have associated high radon daughter exposures with lung cancer. The health hazard arises from breathing air contaminated with radon daughters which are in turn deposited in the lungs. The lung tissues are sensitive to alpha radioactivity. The amounts of airborne radon daughters to which most miners can be exposed with no adverse effects have been established and are expressed as working levels (WL). The current MSHA standard is a maximum personal exposure of 4 working level months (WLM) per year.