Sidebar: Gauging the Dangers of Radon
Safety officials solved the mystery by taking radiation readings at the Watras home in Boyerstown, Pa. What they discovered sounded a national alarm.
Watras, his wife, and their two sons were living over a crack in the earth's crust that acted like a natural chimney, filling their home with radon, a gas that is a byproduct of the decay of uranium and radium underground (see accompanying story). Radon is not itself radioactive. But upon entering the atmosphere, the gas decays into particles that emit alpha radiation. These alpha particles stick to dust in the air, causing background radiation.
But the radiation in the Watras home measured more than 100,000 times the background level. In fact, their air contained as much radon as the atmosphere in a uranium mine. Epidemiological surveys in the 1970s had established a link between high radon exposure and increased lung ...
