What is more hazardous, radon gas or radon decay products?
Actually it is the radon decay products that present the primary health risk associated with the presence of radon in indoor air. When radon is present in the room, its decay products will also exist. When you inhale, you inhale both the radon and the radon decay products. When you exhale, the radon is exhaled, but the radon decay products will remain in the lungs. That is because the radon decay products have electrostatic charges that cause them to adhere to lung tissue. Although the lungs can expel them through the normal clearing process, it takes a fair amount of time to do so and in that time frame the decay products themselves, will breakdown, releasing alpha radiation to the lung cells that the decays products are near. In short, because the radon decay products have a longer residence time in the lungs, they pose the primary health risk of irradiation of the lung tissue.
